Ecosense installs Solar Thermal Lab at Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Puducherry.
National Institute of Technology, Puducherry is one of the premier Engineering College of India. It’s established with the vision to be among leading Indian Institutes for excellent, relevant and value based technical education and research.
Ecosense helped in realising their vision by installing Solar Thermal Lab. Solar Thermal Lab installed at NIT Puducherry includes two equipments:
1. Solar Thermal Concentrator Training System (Parabolic Trough type collector)
2. Solar Parabolic Cooker Trainer (Parabolic Dish type collector).
Solar Thermal Concentrator Training System
The Solar Concentrator Training System is a compact and miniaturized version of Solar parabolic trough collector-based water heating system. The system consists of parabolic reflectors, absorber tube, sun tracker, piping, storage tanks and a heat exchanger. A control panel would control different devices and also measure the different parameters of the system. The system can be used to perform experiments on heat transfer, parabolic trough characteristics and heat loss at different parts of the system. The system is highly flexible – it can be used with different working fluids, different absorbing materials, different piping insulation thickness and different types of storage tanks. This gives a lot of scope for research in heat transfer and related fields. Wind speed variation and flow velocity are other parameters which can be changed to show their impact on heat transfer and heat loss.
The system enables user to study and learn about Solar thermal technologies in easy and interactive manner. It educates the user about basics on solar thermal Solar Parabolic Trough Collector technology, basic terminologies used for solar thermal technology like temperature, pressure, flow measurement install collector/receiver mounting structures on the foundations etc.
How can Solar Concentrator Training system help students?
• System comes with active dual axis sun tracking mechanism, so that precise readings can be taken over a period of time.
• System comes with two absorber tubes. These two absorber tubes can be used with two different types of fluids. A student can conduct experiment on different types of fluid and calculate parameters such as thermal efficiency, heat loss factor etc.
• There is a provision to vary the flow rate of liquid which enables students to find the optimal flow rate at which they can get maximum temperature gain.
• The system comes with an active measurement panel to measure temperatures, pressures and flow at different locations of the system so that a student can visualize the working of system clearly.
• The wheels provide mobility to the system so it can be transferred from one location to other easily.
Solar Parabolic Cooker Trainer
The product is a small model of a real time solar parabolic cooker and can be used for the study and experimentation of characterization and different heat transfer analysis.
Different aspects like cooking power, cooking energy, energy efficiency, exergy, exergy efficiency, figure of merit and their corresponding calculations can be demonstrated with the help of this system. The system can be divided in three parts viz. main collector system, measuring unit and the cooking pot.
A student can experiment on different parameters of Solar Parabolic cooker to find out energy, exergy, figure of merit and efficiency of the system.
Demonstration of Equipment Conducted
Master’s Training Conducted
Ecosense also conducted a demonstration of equipments for training Professors and scholar. This training program was focused on educating and training the professors, scholars and technicians in Solar Thermal technology who will further train thousands of students and professionals to start their career or business in this very field.