Thermosyphon Design Project

Energy Group - Thermosyphon Design Team

Team Members

Brendon Earl Advisor (as developer of original prototype)

Gavin Paul Programmer

Christopher Thibeault Programmer

Nicholas Kipe Mechanical Engineer

Benjamin Jordan Mechanical Engineer

Tyler Thumma Mechanical Engineer

Goal

Meeting the hot water demands of clients with very limited resources by establishing a technique of designing, constructing, and maintaining optimal thermosyphon solar water heaters.

Senior Project aims to verify key equations within the solar water heating simulation via physical testing.

Also developing manufacturing practices for the construction of these solar panels.

Positive Impact Upon Completion

Help supply buildings in need of heat (e.g. orphanages, hospitals, clinics, etc.) with sustainable heat.

Thermosyphon solar water heaters are self powered (relying only on heat to move the

water) inexpensive easy to maintain

Steps to Achieving the Goal

1.Create a computer simulation of possible thermosyphon solar water heater designs

2.Create a computer program that will utilize this simulation to find the optimal design given a specific situation

3.Develop the construction techniques for the various possible designs

Where We Are

We have a demo of the simulation created in VBscript (in Excel)

We are using this as a guide to write a full-fledged, robust, efficient, and powerful simulation written in Java.

We are currently testing certain portions of the physical design to find real data

This Year (Programming)

Accomplished so far this year Added two programmers to the team Started rewriting the program into Java

Goals we hope to complete this semester Make any modifications to code as would be

necessary to fit the data given by the physical tests

Complete enough of the Java program to effectively and efficiently simulate at least one portion of the water heater

Gain a leader for the project

This Year (Engineers)

1.  Get model absorber plate and water temperatures within 10% of experimental temperature results for a single pipe and controlled temperature boundary condition.2.  Get model absorber plate and water temperatures within 10% of experimental temperature results for a single pipe and known insolation.

3.  Get model absorber plate and water temperatures within 10% of experimental temperature results for a pipe array and known insolation.

This Year (Engineers)

4.  Identify any limits to system parameters that cause greater than a 10% temperature difference between model and experimental results.

5.  Identify manufacturing lessons learned during construction of testprototype collectors.6.  Identify a set of available materials and costs for U.S.manufacturing of parallel pipe flat collectors.

This Year (Engineers)

Completed: So far we finished #1 above

Actual results were very close to the Excel simulation’s results for two of the three test models

Ready for test two, using an absorber plate with a black surface, in a frame with insulation on the bottom, and one layer of glazing on the top.

Waiting for a sunny day.

Prayer Requests

That we gain a leader for the project. For increasingly effective communication

between the engineering and computer science team members (as these are two very different sciences with different ways of thought, methodology, process, etc...)