Caloric Energy Output from Concentrating Solar Arrays

Overview

Objectives/Goals The project objective was to determine whether the average number of calories produced by each 1.25 inch mirror tile in a concentrating solar array would remain constant as the size of the array was changed. In my hypothesis, I state that the average calories produced by a single mirror would remain constant as the number of mirrors in the array is increased and/or decreased. Methods/Materials In order to test my hypothesis, I built a solar array with 225 1.25 inch adjustable mirror tiles which could all be focused on a single spot. I then filled a test tube with 30 milliliters of water and focused the mirrors so that they were all reflecting onto the test tube. I recorded the temperature and repeated the process after covering up 25 mirrors every ten minutes. I then used the formula: the quantity of heat = the mass times the specific heat times the change in temperature. This formula told me how many calories the array was emitting. Results The experiment showed a range of calories per mirror from 15.6 calories to 9.6 calories. There was an average of about 11.8 calories per mirror when all of the tests had been completed. Conclusions/Discussion The hypothesis of the experiment was not supported. There was an expectation of a constant proportion of calories per mirror; however, the tests showed no recognizable mode of the number of calories per mirror.

Competition history

• CSEF 2006 Physics & Astronomy · Entry J1539

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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