The present study focuses on synthesizing solar selective absorber thin films, combining nanostructured, binary transition metal spinel features and a composite oxide of Co and Ni. Single-layered designs of crystalline spinel-type oxides using a facile, easy and relatively cost-effective wet chemical spray pyrolysis method were prepared with a crystalline structure of MxCo3−xO4. The role of the annealing temperature on the solar selective performance of nickel-cobalt oxide thin films (∼725 ± 20 nm thick) was investigated. XRD analysis confirmed the formation of high crystalline quality thin films with a crystallite size in the range of 27–52 nm. The highest solar absorptance (∼85.2%) and the lowest thermal emittance (∼4.45%) along with the highest values of both hardness and the Young’s modulus (19.1 GPa and 104 GPa, respectively) were obtained for the film annealed at 600 °C. In addition, the synthesized nickel-cobalt oxide thin films show band gap energies in the range of 1.15–1.38 eV and excellent thermal stability at higher temperatures, which makes them interesting candidates for solar absorbing applications.
High-resolution imaging of celestial bodies, especially the sun, is essential for understanding dynamic phenomena and surface details. However, the Earth's atmospheric turbulence distorts the incoming light wavefront, which poses a challenge for accurate solar imaging. Solar granulation, the formation of granules and intergranular lanes on the sun's surface, is important for studying solar activity. This paper investigates the impact of atmospheric turbulence-induced wavefront distortions on solar granule imaging and evaluates, both visually and statistically, the effectiveness of Zonal Adaptive Optics (AO) systems in correcting these distortions. Utilizing cellular automata for granulation modelling and Zonal AO correction methods,
... Show MoreThe solar photocatalytic degradation of diuron, which is one of the herbicides, has been studied by a solar pilot plant in heterogeneous solar photocatalysis with titanium dioxide. The pilot plant was made up of compound parabolic collectors specially designed for solar photocatalytic applications. The influence of different variables such as, H2O2 initial concentration, TiO2 initial concentration, and diuron initial concentration with their relationship to the degradation efficiency were studied. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) found to increase the rate of diuron degradation. The best removal efficiency of heterogeneous solar photocatalytic TiO2 system was found to be 46.65 % and for heterogeneous solar photocatalytic TiO2/ H2O2 system was fo
... Show MoreHeat transfer process and fluid flow in a solar chimney used for natural ventilation are investigated numerically in the present work. Solar chimney was tested by selecting different positions of absorber namely: at the back side, front side, and at the middle of the air gap. CFD analysis based on finite volume method is used to predict the thermal performance, and air flow in two dimensional solar chimney under unsteady state condition, to identify the effect of different parameters such as solar radiation. Results show that a solar chimney with absorber at the middle of the air gap gives better ventilation performance. A comparison between the numerical and previous experimental results shows fair agreement.
Artificial roughness applied to a Solar Air Heater (SAH) absorber plate is a popular technique for increasing its total thermal efficiency (ηt−th). In this paper, the influence of geometrical parameters of V-down ribs attached below the corrugated absorbing plate of a SAH on the ηt−th was examined. The impacts of key roughness parameters, including relative pitch p/e (6–12), relative height e/D (0.019–0.043), angles of attack α (30–75°), and Re (1000–20,000), were examined under real weather conditions. The SAH ηt−th roughened by V-down ribs was predicted using an in-house developed conjugate heat-transfer numerical model. The maximum SAH ηt−th was shown to be 78.8% as predicted under the steady-state condition
... Show MoreSolar collectors, in general, are utilized to convert the solar energy into heat energy, where it is employed to generate electricity. The non-concentrating solar collector with a circular shape was adopted in the present study. Ambient air is heated under a translucent roof where buoyant air is drawn from outside periphery towards the collector center (tower base). The present study is aimed to predict and visualize the thermal-hydrodynamic behavior for airflow under inclined roof of the solar air collector, SAC. Three-dimensional of the SAC model using the re-normalization group, RNG, k−ε turbulence viscus model is simulated. The simulation was carried out by using ANSYS-FLUENT 14.5. The simulation
... Show MoreThe objective of this study was to progress another method for coagulation/flocculation of the microalga Chlorella vulgaris via pellet-forming of the fungal species Aspergillus niger which was isolated from municipal wastewater mud and the facultative heterotrophic microalga "C.vulgaris was used. The main factors studies were spore inoculums, organic carbon concentration in medium as well as pH variation which had considerably positive effects on microalgae/fungi co-pelletization formation. The process parameters are an inoculum1×104 spores/ML, 15 g/l sucrose as carbon source and pH ranged from 5 - 7.0 were found optimal for efficient microalgae/fungi co-pelletization formation. For autotrophic growth, when pH of culture broth was adjusted
... Show MoreBackground: techniques of image analysis have been used extensively to minimize interobserver variation of immunohistochemical scoring, yet; image acquisition procedures are often demanding, expensive and laborious. This study aims to assess the validity of image analysis to predict human observer’s score with a simplified image acquisition technique. Materials and methods: formalin fixed- paraffin embedded tissue sections for ameloblastomas and basal cell carcinomas were immunohistochemically stained with monoclonal antibodies to MMP-2 and MMP-9. The extent of antibody positivity was quantified using Imagej® based application on low power photomicrographs obtained with a conventional camera. Results of the software were employed
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