Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(IJARET)
Volume 7, Issue 2, March-April 2016, pp. 01-08, Article ID: IJARET_07_02_001
Available online at
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ISSN Print: 0976-6480 and ISSN Online: 0976-6499
IAEME Publication
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HIGHLIGHTS
Galena powder has been used in attempt to develop the aborbitivity of black paint for
heating system by using solar energy. A range of particle size of Galena powder was
mixed with the black paint to increase the aborbitivity of the paint. A maximum water
temperature of about 95 0C was reached with 10 wt% of Galena powder.
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1. INTRODUCTION
The Sun is a sphere of very condensed hot gaseous matter with a diameter of about
1.39 109 m, mostly hydrogen isotopes combining to form helium atoms with a
transformation of a certain mass, which is emitted as solar energy. This process takes
place by nuclear fusion in the core of the Sun. The solar power that strikes the Earth is
around 1.7 1014 kW. This value, theoretical and practical information about history
of solar energy, thermal collectors, and applications of solar energy has been very
well clarified by Kalogirou, 2004 [1]. Brilliant details about using of materials for
heating system by solar energy have been almost fully reported by Lenel et al.,
Kennedy [2, 3]. In 1993, Chatterjee and Pal have declared that thin film of Galena can
be used as low cost selective absorber [4]. Large scale applications of hot water
system in Europe have been reviewed by Fisch et al. [5].
Materials with high absorbitivity and low emission in the solar spectrum with
good stability and accessibility at using the temperatures are required for
manufacturing of heating system by solar energy especially for domestic use. Many
attempts in the field of finding new selective materials and using solar energy for
domestic applications have been reported [6, 7, 8, 9, and 10]. Numerous countries
with abundance of Sunshine started utilization of solar energy for water heating
system for domestic applications [11, 12, and 13]. Additions of some metal powders
to selective materials have been published to increase the thermal conductivity of
these materials [14, 15, and 16].
The Sultanate of Oman is classified among countries that receive the highest solar
energy in the world as that very well reported by Kazem [17], hence any work of
research either theoretical or practical is very essential in the field of solar energy
applications. The current work is carried out in Al- Buraimi city at the north-west,
Sultanate of Oman, where the solar intensity is very high. This city receives the
highest Sunshine hours/day compared with the other cites of the Sultanate of Oman as
reported by Al-Badi et al [18].
The goal of this research is to study the affect of Galena powder with particle size
within the range greater than 125 to 250 on the absorbitivity of black paint as a
selective surface for solar energy applications.
2. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
The experimental procedure was started by preparing the following stuff and
equipments:
Black paint type Berger paints, Allinone, High Gloss Enamel, product of Oman
Thinner Liquid type Supreme, CCIA PV 274070, product of Italy
Homemade experiment wooden box with double glassing front side, about 1m of
length, 15cm of depth, and 20cm of height. The air gap between glasses is of about
1cm
Aluminum containers size of 15cm 10cm 4cm with top pipe of about 1.5 cm
diameter and length of about 5cm for temperature measurements
Digital thermometers
Digital balance
Galena ingot
Stainless steel mortar with its hammer handle
Stainless steel micro sieves of about 125m and 250m
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Bulks of Galena with a diameter of about 2.5 cm were brought from public market
in Ajman, UAE. Figure1 shows some parts of Galena ingots as received.
Powder of Galena was prepared by following these steps:
The lumps of Galena were mechanically crushed to a size of about 2mm and less.
The crushed small pieces were manually pulverized by using a stainless steel mortar
for about one hour.
The obtained powder was sieved by the stainless steel micro-sieves of 125m, and
then by 250m prior to mixing process with the black paint. After using the sieve of
250m, the collected powder particle size is within the range from greater than
125m to 250m.
A fracture surface specimen from the received Galena bulks and some produced
powder were prepared for SEM tests. Mixing process of the black paint with 10wt%
percentage of prepared Galena powder was done. About 40g of black paint was
weighed by the digital balance and about 5g of thinner liquid was added and
mechanically mixed with the produced powder to be ready for painting process. Three
aluminum containers were very well cleaned; one of them was kept as it is, the second
was painted by plain black paint, and the third was painted by the mixture of the black
paint with the sieved Galena powder by 250m sieve. The prepared containers were
filled with water and then fixed in the homemade wooden box prior to water heating
by solar energy. The heating process was employed by setting up the experiments
proceeding to start at 9:00 am. The initial temperature T0 was measured by using the
digital thermometer, and then the wooden box was exposed to solar radiation for 7
hours. The temperatures of the water in all containers as a function of exposure time
were measured whilst the box was almost perpendicular to the direction of the solar
beam.
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The misconstrue study of Galena ingot and powder by the SEM exhibited very
brittle fracture surface as shown in figure 3. This brittleness is very important in the
subsequent milling process to produce a powder from this ingot. In addition, the
EDAX unit attached with the SEM revealed that Galena ingot was found almost
compound of PbS [16]
Figure 3 a-Secondary electron image of fracture surface of galena ingot, 500x, b- Galena
powder with magnification of 100x
The first attempt of heating process was carried out on the date of 17-10-2015 by
using three containers: pure aluminum, black painted aluminum, and the one painted
with mixture of black paint and Galena powder to see the difference between these
cases on the water temperatures. The result of this experiment is shown in figure 4,
from which it can be concluded that the maximum temperature in the case of the pure
aluminum is about 73 0C , and about 84 0C in the black painted case, whilst in the
case of the mixture painted is around 89 0C.
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The result of the third experiment is given in figure 6 from which it can be noticed
that the maximum water temperature in the case of the black paint plus 10 wt% of
Galena powder with the chosen particle size is higher than that of plain black paint by
around 5 0C, while this value is about 6.5 0C when the particle size within the range of
60m and less [16]. At the first
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hour of exposing time, the increase in temperature is almost the same, and then
starts to increase gradually to the maximum value. This behavior probably is due to
the change of the aborbitivity of the mixture of black paint with the Galena powder
with temperature increase. A value of maximum temperature of about 95 0C can be
achieved by black paint mixture.
The maximum values of temperatures obtained in this trial of research are more
than enough for domestic use; consequently black painted aluminum solar heating
system is very adequate in Al-Buraimi, and probably in many cities in the Sultanate of
Oman.
The relation of temperature difference T as a function of exposure time is given
in figure 7, from which it can be concluded that the relation is almost exponential
form. T=T-T0, where T is the water temperature after a certain exposure time, and T0
is the initial water temperature.
4. CONCLUSION
The most important conclusion in this article is that even with a pure aluminum
selective surface, a temperature of about 75 0C as an average can be obtained, which
is more than enough for domestic use. The results also showed that the water
temperature can be increased by addition of Galena powder to black painted selective
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5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank Dr. Ahmed Al Rawas of the Sultan Qaboos
University, Sultanate of Oman, Physics Department for his great help to use the SEM
for microstructure and chemical analysis. Also, the author greatly appreciates Mr.
Kalyan Baddipudi of the UoB for proof reading. Many thanks to my students Amal
Al Ghailini and Abdol Aziz Al- Saadi for their appreciated help in this work.
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