Abstract
Background: Many African countries suffer from irrigation problems, especially the sub-Saharan African countries, which have lagged far behind their counterparts in the north of the Sahara. This makes these countries resort to using unsustainable, polluting and expensive irrigation methods, which leads to a relative rise in food prices in those countries, especially with the high demand for food with the steady increase in population, however the only hope for these countries is to develop sustainable, modern and low-cost ways for irrigation system. In this report, a detailed study is presented that helps to develop a solar powered pump without moving parts and non-interruptible for use in irrigation in areas of high solar radiation in sub-Saharan Africa. This solar pump was invented by engineer Dennis Carey in the eighties of the last century and forms the basis for using Environmentally friendly, non-polluting and sustainable means of pumping water.Methodology: the initial results from the installation of the solar pump are presented. The evolution of the pressure and temperature data of the solar pump with submerged "baseline" depth, length of adjustment, relationship between temperature, pressure, submerged depth and tube length is analysed. Accurate pressure and temperature measurements are also taken to identify the basics of the solar thermal system in pumping water and analyse the components of the pressure and temperature measurement system from various sensors such as thermocouples, when measuring the hot and cold intersection point as well as the air temperature in the solar pump. The pressure data of the frequency signals is also processed in advanced devices such as the Pico scope, which processes the data received from the thermal sensors and analyses the data in the computer on the Octave program, which presents the results clearly.
Conclusions: There are many recommendations related to providing some suggestions for further study and evaluation related to practical research areas, a series of practical interventions that would help more in the development of the solar pump were recommended, and thus obtaining a solar-powered pump without moving parts and unbreakable. Pumping environmentally friendly, non-polluting and sustainable water.
| Date of Award | 3 Oct 2023 |
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| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | John Allport (Main Supervisor) |