1.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Review of patents
The US Patent no. 4176786 [1979] by Henz W.Braukmann describes a concealed
thermostat control valve which regulates supply of a fluid through a conduit in response
to change in ambient temperatures. Change in ambient temperature expands the wax to
squeeze the adjoining rubber casing which moves the plunger contained therein to push
the valve stem towards valve seat to regulate flow. The invention has the setback in terms
of limited movement of plunger and associated valve stem due to relatively smaller
change in thermal expansion of wax, smaller temperature range of operation due to
relatively low temperature of melting of wax, and the mode of operation of the valve
which closes fluid flow on temperature rise. In case of solar heating applications we need
a valve that opens on temperature rise and closes at lower temperature levels.

The US patent No. 4196847 [1980] by Ernst Gobien covers application of a thermostatic
control valve to maintain at constant temperature of coolant flow in the cooling jacket of
an internal combustion engine. It comprises of warm up valve to suppress coolant flow in
partial area of cooling jacket, a radiator valve to supply coolant from cooling jacket to
radiator, a bypass valve to return coolant from cooling jackets outlet to its inlet thus
bypassing radiator. A single thermostatic element therein responds to temperature
changes and actuates warm up valve, radiator valve and bypass valve. A solar heating
system hardly requires warm up valve or bypass valve since the system aims to deliver
solar heated fluid at constant temperature or at minimum high temperature.

Robert B.Franconis US Patent No.7845575B2 [2010] refers to a temperature actuated

valve assembly which has a main flow passage and control flow passage. A
pneumatically actuated valve is hydraulically coupled to control flow passage so as to
control flow in main passage. One thermostatic valve in contact with main flow passage
is arranged to control flow in control flow passage to position pneumatically actuated

valve. Such a device has the shortcoming that it needs an external electric power source
and cant be operated directly by solar thermal energy.
A US patent No. 4216902 by Heinz Braukmann [1980] describes a thermostatic control
valve for application to radiators used for room heating. It comprises of ambient
temperature sensor in a housing to operate a plunger to actuate control valve. The
housing is isolated thermally from the valve mechanism. Its claimed advantage fr
controlling heating fluid flow through the radiator is that it responds to the rooms
ambient temperature rather than being affected by the heat emanating from the heat
radiator. The limitations perceived in this arrangement are the low operating range of
temperatures that are appropriate for space heating and restrictions limited to plungercylinder mechanisms.

Kevin Klein in his US patent No. 5203496 [1993] narrates a thermodynamic control
valve as applied to mixing of hot and cold fluids to get a constant mixed fluid
temperature. The limitation of interest to current topic is the inappropriateness of this
invention for fluid flow control where solar heating is involved and hot and cold stream
mixing is not required.

Review of Research Papers

Carol Gauthier et al.,[1997], Solar Energy, Vol 60, 333-346 discuss the applications of
a thermodynamic control valve need not be limited to just industrial process heating only.
Commercial green houses have very low thermal mass. So it is normal to ventilate excess
heat solar heat captured during the day to outside and to supply auxiliary heat from
outside during night. Amplitudes of diurnal or nocturnal temperature swings become high
during transition between summer and winter months. Either the air flow or working of
the fans or blowers needs to be reversed using direction control valves or reversal of air
moving machines. In such circumstances thermodynamic control valve can also act as
direction reversal valve or direction reversing switch actuator. For example, the above

cited paper describes numerical simulation of a soil heat exchanger-storage system for
green houses. Here the proposed valve can be used to collect air at the top of the green
house during the day and at the ground level during the night.
Melhi Tan [1997], Solar Energy, Vol 60, pp 127-134 states an opposite sunspaces
passive solar air heating system is described in the above paper. The system transfers
solar energy gained in the Southern sunspace of an apartment to the Northern glazed
space via air ducts located in the ceiling and floor. The heated air in the Southern
sunspace rises and enters the air ducts placed in the ceiling to flow through these ducts to
the Northern glazed space. The air displaced in the Southern glazed space is replaced by
cooler air flowing from Northern glazed space through ducts in floor leading to Southern
sunspace. The proposed temperature sensitive thermodynamic control valve can ensure
that only air above a threshold temperature level can reach the space to be heated.
D.L.Loveday and C.Craggs [1992], Solar Energy, Vol. 49, pp 279-287 and 289-298,
in both the above papers discuss univariate and multivariate stochastic modeling of
temperature affecting performance of a solar energy assisted heat pump for space heating
applications. The possible sources of low grade (low temperature) heat can be ground
soil, water flowing in neighborhood river or stream or ambient air. For greater
convenience ambient air is preferred but unlike soil or water the ambient temperature has
greater temperature swings as a function of time of the day or day of the season. It is also
possible that temperature rise in ambient temperature may be high enough that it is
amplified by heat pump to a level beyond comfort range. In such cases it is desirable that
a thermodynamic control valve such as the proposed one be designed to close or
minimize the ambient air flow if its temperature rises.

E.Dascalaki et al., [1995], Vol 55, 327-341 states the Comfort space for humans is
mainly determined by a combination of indoor space temperature and air flow rates. The
same amount of air at one particular temperature can be ventilated at different rates by
natural or forced convection depending on the size of ventilation openings. Natural
ventilation through large openings can be categorized either as cross or single sided (ie.

All openings are on one side of the wall only). In the latter case thermal buoyancy and
wind induced pressures are the driving forces of ventilation. The above paper analyses
and modifies network air flow models to accommodate difference between theoretical
and experimental values when the inertia forces dominate over gravitational forces.
While studying the paper one perceives the possibility of regulating air flow patterns
using a thermodynamic control valve working on temperature difference between indoor
and outdoor temperatures to actuate windows to vary the size of the opening to have
desired effect of ventilation.
N. M. Khattab, Applied Thermal Engineering Vol. 24 (2004) 2747-2760 has presented
the description and operation of a simple structure, low cost solar powered absorption
refrigeration module with the solid absorption pair of local domestic type charcoal and
menthol. Test result shows that the module composed of the bed technique Type 4 and
reflectors arrangement Type C gives best performance. During cooling, the minimum
bed temperature, recorded in either winter or summer time is very close to the ambient
temperature due to the absence of bed insulation. It is found that using the four types of
bed techniques heated by reflector Type D in cold climate can increase maximum bed
temperature by a ratio between 13% and 16% than the plain bed temperature heated
directly by solar energy.
M. Roeb, et al., Journal of Solar energy Vol. 85 (2011). PP. 634-644 In this article
author has present and describe the realization and successful test operation of a 100 kw
Pilot plant for two step solar thermo-chemical water splitting on a solar tower at the
platform Solar de Almeria which aims at the demonstration of the feasibility of the
process on a solar tower platform under real condition. Potential control parameters have
been analyzed which are capable of ensuring sufficient constant temperature levels. It
was concluded that there is only little usefulness of employing feed gas pre heating and
mass flow of the feed gas as control parameter, where as the preferred way of controlling
the process temperature is by the heliostats themselves. Solar flax fluctuations are
compensated by adding or removing individual heliostats to the two foci. A constant
strategy was set up by using high flux mirrors for the coarse adjustment and low flux
heliostats for the fine turning of the temperature control.

M. Santamouris et al., (1997), solar energy Vol.60, Nos.3/4, PP.191-197 has discussed
that the passive cooling techniques applied to thermostatically controlled buildings can
contribute to reducing their cooling load significantly. Ground and night ventilation
technique appears to be most promising among the proposed dissipation technique. This
article deals with the development of a integrated method to calculate the energy
contribution of ground and night ventilation dissipation technique to the cooling load of
thermostatically controlled buildings. The achievements of thermal comfort during
summer and reduction of cooling loads by natural means is now considered a first priority
for electric utility and consumers. The resulting peak electricity demand profiles and the
very high cost of conventional cooling system makes the strategic management of air
conditioning growth an important exercise for the planners of industrialized countries.
Sarita Mary et al., (1995), Journal of solar energy society of India. Author has
experiment local variety of ripe tomato and were bleached for 30 seconds in 2.5% brine,
cooled and sliced into one centimeter slices, and dried in open sun, indirect solar tray
drier and in direct solar tray drier. The dried samples of direct solar tray dried were less
acceptable than indirect solar tray dried counter parts. Open sun drying also gave good
dried products like those dried in the indirect solar tray drier. Direct solar tray dried
sample lost more moisture when compared to open sun dried and indirect solar tray dried
samples. Reduction in drying time in case of direct solar tray drier was due to its higher
inner temperature as compared the other two conditions. Higher dehydration ratio is
found in case of direct solar tray dried samples than that of the sample dried under other
two drying condition. All three drying condition caused significant reduction in ascorbic
acid content at one percent level.
T. L. Freeman et al., (1978), Solar Energy Vol. 22, PP.125-135. A comparative study of
the performance of combined solar heat pump system for residential space and domestic
hot water heating has been undertaken. Simulations have been made with TRNSYS [1] of
three basic method combined configuration solar and conventional heat pump system, in
two different climates Madison, Wisconsim and Albuqerque, New Mexico. The result
indicates that the parallel combined system is probably the most practical solar heat pump

configuration. The thermal performance at a given collector area is constantly superior to

both the series and the dual source systems over the heating seasons.
S.I. Anwar et al., (2000), Journal of Solar Energy Society of India. In this research
article author has presented thermal analysis of a multi-tray solar crop drying system
based on basic energy balance equation for each component of the system. The effect of
collector length and relative humidity surrounding trays has been incorporated in the
analysis. It has been observed in this paper that (1) the overall efficiency of a multi-tray
system is higher than that of a single tray for a given crop mass. (2) The overall
efficiency of a multi-tray system is higher for smaller mass in lower tray in comparison
with the mass of crop in top tray. It is important to note that daily moisture removal
increases whereas efficiency decreases with increase in collector length. Furthermore, the
daily moisture removal and overall efficiency both are decreases with an increase in
relative humidity.
Madhu Goyal et Al., (1997), Journal of Solar Energy Society in India In this paper
author studied and investigated quality of raisin after pre-drying treatment using in both
open sun and solar tray drying. Indirect solar tray drier appears to be a better technique as
compared to the other two drying option. The fruits or vegetables are dried under open
sun light, but the process takes about 30-35 hours or even more. The present article
evaluates the effects of various pre-drying treatments and the drying condition on the
quality of raisins with special reference to direct and indirect solar tray drying. Use of
indirect solar tray dryer appears to be a better technique as compared to the other two
drying options tried due to the drying time and physio-chemical quality of the product.
H. L. Luo et. Al., Science direct, Solar energy Vol. 81 (2007) PP. 607-613, in this study
a novel solar adsorption cooling system for low-temperature grain storage has been built,
which consist of a solar powered water heating system, a silica gel water adsorption
chiller, a cooling tower and a fan coil unit. A solar powered adsorption air conditioning
system with heat and mass recovery processes between the adsorbers was built and put
into experimental operation to inhibit the temperature increase of grain inside a storage
bin and it is found that (1) The solar powered adsorption chiller had an average sep
between 66 and 90 W/m2 with a solar cooling COP ranging from 0.096 to 0.13. (2) The

corresponding electrical cop of the adsorption air conditioning system between 2.6 to 3.4,
which is far higher than usual mechanical vapour compression chillers. 3) Cooling the bin
headspace with a solar power adsorption chiller during hot seasons could inhibit the
temperature increase of the grain upper layer inside the bin. Thus, this type of solar
adsorption air conditioning system could be considered as an alternative for low
temperature grain storage.
F. Buchter et al., (2002), International Journal of Refrigeration 26 (2003) 7986, built
and tested an adsorptive solar refrigerator in May 1999 in Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso.
During the test period, irradiance were quite good (between 19 and 25 MJ m_2), but the
ambient temperature was relatively warm (averagely 27.4 C at sunrise and 37.4 C at
mid-afternoon). The experimental values of the gross solar COP lie between 0.09 and
0.13. Despite a warm climate, the performance of the machine compares favorably to
previously published results.
A.O. Dieng et al., (2001) Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews vol. 5, 313342,
states that possibility of using non-polluting materials and to save more than half of the
primary energy involved in this sector are obviously the most important characteristics
but simplicity, low maintenance and the absence of noisy components are also very
important features that make this type of system suitable for numerous other applications
such as air-conditioning in cars, trains, bus or food transportation or solar cooling.
Martin HAJMAN et al., (2012) EPJ Web of Conferences 25, 01052, in these article
numerical simulations were compared with experimental measurements for the award of
the same boundary conditions. Valve characteristics have been computed for individual
travel heights and pressure ratios of two variants of seat inflow angle (90 and 60).
Some other aspects are discussed in the article - comparison of the ax symmetric and 3D
modeling, influence of the computational domain size, comparison of characteristics for
two flow media, experimental model of the valve etc. The mentioned results are
important for engineering simulations and also for design of the control valves for steam
turbines of the large output.

Muhammad Hanif Khalil et al., (2012), Iranica Journal of Energy & Environment 3 (4):
380-384, The research study is on development and performance evaluation of a solar
thermal collector that warms up air as transferring medium of heat for drying of grains.
The statistical analysis showed that increase 1 in mass flow rate significantly (P > 0.003)
increases the performance of the solar collector. Also there was decrease in performance
by the change of months of year. The efficiency was 10% higher in November 2011 as
compared to January 2012. It was concluded that for drying of grains the solar thermal
collector must be operated at high mass flow rates of air from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm to get
maximum performance from the solar thermal collector used for grain drying.
Apurba Layek, (2010), International Journal of Energy and Environment Vol. 1, Issue 4,
2010 pp.683-696, This paper is concerned with optimization of roughness parameters of
solar air heater based on effective efficiency criterion. Effective efficiency of a solar air
heater having repeated transverse chamfered ribgroove roughness on one broad wall has
been computed using the correlations for heat transfer and friction factor developed
within the investigated range of operating and system parameters. Roughness parameters
viz. relative roughness pitch P/e, relative groove position g/P, chamfer angle , relative
roughness height e/Dh and flow Reynolds number Re, have a combined effect on the heat
transfer as well as fluid friction.
DongBin Lee et al., (2012), Journal of Control Science and Engineering, Vol. 2012,
Article ID 846458, in this paper, a nonlinear model-based adaptive control approach is
proposed for a solenoid-valve system. The main contribution of this research is the
application of adaptive control theory and Lyapunov-type stability approach to design a
controller for a dynamic model of the solenoid-valve system in the presence of those
uncertainties. The control objectives such as set-point regulation, parameter
compensation, and stability are supposed to be simultaneously accomplished. The error
signals are first formulated based on the nonlinear dynamic models and then the control
input is developed using the Lyapunov stability-type analysis to obtain the error bounded
while overcoming the uncertainties.

Jianfeng LU et al., (2009), Energy and Power Engineering, 2009, 110-115, in this
paper, basic physical model is proposed to investigate the solar thermal power, and the
operating temperature is optimized to maximize the electricity generating efficiency.
When the concentrated energy flux rises, the absorption efficiency of heat receiver will
first increase and then decrease, while the increasing of flow velocity can improve the
absorption performance. As the working temperature rising, the heat loss of infrared
radiation and natural convection increases quickly, so the absorption efficiency obviously
decreases, while the Carnot efficiency of the steam turbine cycle will rise.
N. Mhazo et al., (2010), Research Journal of Environmental and Earth Sciences 2(3):
159-163, potential application of a simple panel solar cooker design to inactivate bacteria
in drinking water was investigated. The results showed rapid decline in E. coli count
when water temperature reached about 55C and this was attained within 2 h of exposure
to solar radiation. The findings suggest that there is potential in using the cook it to
inactivate bacteria in drinking water.
MR.Y.Y.NANDURKAR et al., (2012), International Journal of Engineering Science and
Technology, Vol. 4 No.03, The solar water heating system with modified flat plat
collector is not over complicated as compare to ISI flat plat collector and will be straight
forward to use and easy to maintain. Simultaneous testing of number of various collectors
will be possible. It is found that the modified flat plate collector with increase in diameter
of test section, Nusselt number and Reynolds number is increased with second power of
tube diameter.
P. RAMAN et al., (2001), Solar Energy Vol. 70, No. 4, pp. 319329,this paper describes
the development of a solar passive system, which can provide thermal comfort
throughout the year in composite climates. In the first phase, passive model 1 comprising
two sets of solar chimneys was developed and monitored for its performance for 1
complete calendar year. Based on the feedback and experience, an improved version of

model 2 was developed. In model 2 both the tomb wall and sack cloth cooling concepts
were incorporated.
Nawaf H. Saeid et al., (2010), Engineering, 2010, 2, 832-840, Parametric study is
carried out in the present article to investigate the unsteady performance of solar energy
gain and heat retention of two different integrated-collector-storage systems. The
performances of the two systems are evaluated based on the maximum temperature in the
system during daytime heating period and nighttime cooling period. For comprehensive
study, 24 hours simulations for 3 cases with different wall boundary condition impose on
the absorber plate are investigated. The simulation results show that the modified system
has better heat retain than the conventional system. Periodic variations of both systems
are investigated, and it is found that both systems show consistent results on different
days.
M. A. Serag-Eldin (2013), Engineering, 2013, 5, 107-116, this article describes an
efficient and economical, underground, thermal storage design to store hot water at a
temperature of around 180C required for running a double effect absorption chiller to
cool a zero-energy-house in a desert environment. It is demonstrated that high storage
efficiency may be reached, providing that appropriate insulation materials are used. It is
also revealed that the soil conductivity has little effect on storage efficiency.
Ghassan M. Tashtoush, (2012), Energy Science and Technology, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2012,
pp. 18-28, A statistical ANOVA approach was used to analyze and to optimize the solar
adsorption refrigeration unit for general applications. It was found that the coefficient of
performance of a SAR system does not depend sharply on the evaporator temperature
without any relation of the system conditions. Instead COP depends significantly on
condenser temperature; type of couple used in the refrigeration system and on some
factors that concern about the design such as surface areas. From the optimization model
the maximum value of COP where found under low condenser temperature below 27 C
and at high generator temperature above 80 C.