TY - GEN A1 - Anagnostopoulos, Argyrios A1 - Sebastia-Saez, Daniel A1 - Campbell, Alasdair N. A1 - Arellano-Garcia, Harvey T1 - Finite element modelling of the thermal performance of salinity gradient solar ponds T2 - Energy N2 - Solar ponds are a promising technology to capture and store solar energy. Accurate, reliable and versatile models are thus needed to assess the thermal performance of salinity gradient solar ponds. A CFD simulation set-up has been developed in this work to obtain a fully versatile model applicable to any practical scenario. Also, a comparison between the results obtained with an existing one-dimensional MATLAB model and the two- and three-dimensional CFD models developed in this work has been carried out to quantify the gain in accuracy and the increase in computational resources needed. The two and three-dimensional models achieve considerably higher accuracy than the 1-D model. They are subsequently found to accurately evaluate the heat loss to the surroundings, the irradiance absorbed by the solar pond and the thermal performance of the pond throughout the year. Two geographic locations: Bafgh (Iran) and Kuwait City, have been evaluated. Y1 - 2020 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544220309683?via%3Dihub U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.117861 SN - 1873-6785 SN - 0360-5442 VL - 203 ER -