Parametric analysis of energy harvesting pavements operated by air convection

In this paper, an energy harvesting pavement prototype using air as the operating fluid is described and analysed. The prototype harvests the thermal energy available in the pavement through pipes embedded in its structure, where air flows thanks to natural convection. The air is able to exit the sy...

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Main Authors: Chiarelli, Andrea, Dawson, Andrew, Garcia, Alvaro
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34770/
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author Chiarelli, Andrea
Dawson, Andrew
Garcia, Alvaro
author_facet Chiarelli, Andrea
Dawson, Andrew
Garcia, Alvaro
author_sort Chiarelli, Andrea
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description In this paper, an energy harvesting pavement prototype using air as the operating fluid is described and analysed. The prototype harvests the thermal energy available in the pavement through pipes embedded in its structure, where air flows thanks to natural convection. The air is able to exit the system through an updraft chimney. A parametric analysis of the controllable parameters of interest is performed in this work in order to evaluate the variation in the performance of the energy harvesting prototype in different experimental setups. This study shows that there exists a maximum value for the air speed in each configuration and that the energy harvesting efficiency depends on the height and the diameter of the chimney. Moreover, there is a minimum value of the chimney diameter that does not allow air movement and makes the whole system behave as if no pipes were embedded in the pavement structure.
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spelling nottingham-347702020-05-04T17:17:01Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34770/ Parametric analysis of energy harvesting pavements operated by air convection Chiarelli, Andrea Dawson, Andrew Garcia, Alvaro In this paper, an energy harvesting pavement prototype using air as the operating fluid is described and analysed. The prototype harvests the thermal energy available in the pavement through pipes embedded in its structure, where air flows thanks to natural convection. The air is able to exit the system through an updraft chimney. A parametric analysis of the controllable parameters of interest is performed in this work in order to evaluate the variation in the performance of the energy harvesting prototype in different experimental setups. This study shows that there exists a maximum value for the air speed in each configuration and that the energy harvesting efficiency depends on the height and the diameter of the chimney. Moreover, there is a minimum value of the chimney diameter that does not allow air movement and makes the whole system behave as if no pipes were embedded in the pavement structure. Elsevier 2015-09-15 Article PeerReviewed Chiarelli, Andrea, Dawson, Andrew and Garcia, Alvaro (2015) Parametric analysis of energy harvesting pavements operated by air convection. Applied Energy, 154 . pp. 951-958. ISSN 0306-2619 Air; Energy harvesting; Asphalt pavement; Optimization; Solar energy http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261915007266 doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.05.093 doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.05.093
spellingShingle Air; Energy harvesting; Asphalt pavement; Optimization; Solar energy
Chiarelli, Andrea
Dawson, Andrew
Garcia, Alvaro
Parametric analysis of energy harvesting pavements operated by air convection
title Parametric analysis of energy harvesting pavements operated by air convection
title_full Parametric analysis of energy harvesting pavements operated by air convection
title_fullStr Parametric analysis of energy harvesting pavements operated by air convection
title_full_unstemmed Parametric analysis of energy harvesting pavements operated by air convection
title_short Parametric analysis of energy harvesting pavements operated by air convection
title_sort parametric analysis of energy harvesting pavements operated by air convection
topic Air; Energy harvesting; Asphalt pavement; Optimization; Solar energy
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34770/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34770/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34770/