INVESTIGATING THE TEMPERATURE GRADIENT OF SOLAR POND AT ARSI SIRE

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine temperature gradient of solar ponds constructed from sand, stone, cement and gravel during the Autumn season (November) in Arsi Sire, Oromia region (at an altitude of 1793 m.a.s.l. with latitude 70 N and longitude of 390 E). The Ponds having depth 0.8m, bottom area (0.4 x 0.4) m 2 and top area (0.8 x 0.8) m 2 were designed and constructed. The experiment was conducted by preparing two ponds with 20% and 30% concentration of saltwater. The rise in temperature of each solar pond and the ambient temperature were measured with mercury thermometers. Hand-watch was used to record the time with the temperature of solar ponds during the experimentation. The experiments were conducted hourly from 10:00 to 15:00 for nine days (21/11/2015 to 29/11/2015). Measurements of the temperature at depths of 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7m from the surface of the ponds and ambient temperature were taken simultaneously. The variation of temperature profile in solar ponds were evaluated, by comparing their temperatures with each other and with ambient temperature. The temperature profile in solar ponds were analyzed, the result shows that at the depth of 0.7m the average maximum temperatures attained were 45.45ᵒC and 35ᵒC by pond ‘B’ and ‘A’ respectively. Pond ‘B’ (30%) showed promising result.