What we do

Our work has mainly been with students (project students, MSc and PhD), one building on the experiences from the another.
Students across the partner universities in the joint projects are coordinated, and several are hosted for periods of time at the NTNU laboratories.
The work described in these web pages are work which has taken place in the NTNU laboratory, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, the list including all partner activities will be longer!

The types of work we do are:

Development and testing in the laboratory framework

As sunshine is unreliable in Trondheim, Norway, we do indoor experiments during the concept development and testing. This is possible for PV/wind based concepts (using grid power for the heating elements), and for some direct heat collection systems. Reflector testing has been limited to outdoor tests, as we do not have lamps with sufficiently parallel rays. A PV rack is mounted on the roof and the the department also operates a wind tunnel for small scale wind turbine testing.

Lamps for thermal experiments

PV panels

Simulations

We have programmed a Ray Tracer, adding functionalities as needed for the different types of reflectors and absorbers.
Comsol Multiphysics has been used for 2D-3D flow cases, heat conduction and combinations.
1D dynamic cases have been programmed in Matlab/Phyton as needed (rock beds, natural circulation, heat conduction).

Ray tracing for absorber in a CPC

We have arrived at some concepts for field piloting: PV based systems with single tank oil/rock for cooking and PCM units for frying. Units will be constructed locally and fitted with an Arduino based data logger. The plan is to implement at institutions first (hospital, college, school, off-grid camps), before down-scaling to households.