Design Construction And Initial Operation Of The Los Alamos National Laboratory Salt Gradient Solar Pond PDF Download

A 232 m2 solar pond was constructed at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the purpose of studying pond hydrodynamics on a large scale and to complement the flow visualization and one-dimensional pond simulator experiments that are ongoing at the Laboratory. Design methods and construction techniques, some of which are unique to this pond, are described in detail. The pond was excavated from a soft volcanic rock known as tuff; such rock forms a large fraction of the Los Alamos area surface geology. Because tuff has a small thermal conductivity, little insulation was required to reduce perimeter energy losses. In addition, the strength of tuff permitted the pond to be built with vertical side walls; this design eliminated local side wall convection in the gradient zone that is possible with sloping side walls. Instrumentation in the pond consists of traversing and fixed rakes of thermometers and salinity probes, an underwater pyranometer, and a weather station. The traversing rake is a wheeled trolley driven vertically on a rectangular rail. Installed on the trolley are coplanar platinum RTDs, a point conductivity probe, and an induction salinometer. The stationary rake supports 28 thermocouples and 28 sample-fluid withdrawal taps located every 10 cm. About 127 T of sodium chloride has been introduced and is nearly dissolved. A 120-cm-thick salinity gradient was established and the pond is heating. Preliminary results indicate a lower-convective-zone heating rate of 1.2°C/day during the pond's first month of operation. Recommendations on pond design, construction, and instrumentation are presented.