M. Giestas et al., THE INFLUENCE OF RADIATION ABSORPTION ON SOLAR POND STABILITY, International journal of heat and mass transfer, 39(18), 1996, pp. 3873-3885
This paper presents a study of the gravitational stability of a salty
layer of a fluid subject to an adverse temperature gradient as a resul
t of heat absorption. This is intended to model solar ponds where an a
rtificial gradient of salt concentration in water is used to prevent c
onvective motions induced by the absorption of solar radiation. The st
ability of the Boussinesq approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations
is analysed for perturbations of a certain kind imposed on the statio
nary solution. The marginal slates for the onset of convection are obt
ained using a Galerkin method based on a weak formulation of the gover
ning equations. The analysis considers solar energy absorption in the
layer and assumes prescribed heat flux values as boundary conditions f
or the temperature equation. Results are compared with those obtained
earlier by different authors for a layer of fluid, heated from below,
with linear profiles of both salt concentration and temperature. Copyr
ight (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.