Mohammad Alharbi is a master student in Electrical Engineering department within CEMSE division at King Abdullah University of science and Technology (KAUST).  He received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia and joined KAUST in Fall 2017.  Currently, he is working on experimental implementation of robust control strategies for parabolic solar collectors.

Research activities

Nowadays, the decrease in fossil resources along with the increase of their environmental impact is driving the world to renewable energy to meet the energy demand. Solar energy represents one promising alternative clean energy source. The heat transfer mechanism of the solar collector is concentrating the sunlight by the parabolic shaped mirrors to the central tube which contain the fluid to be heated. 

However, Solar energy is affected by the environmental changes such as solar irradiance.  Therefore, the aim is to design controller to force the outlet temperature to track the desired level by changing the fluid velocity.  A small-scale set-up is built to mimic the outdoor set-up for testing the controller in a controlled environment before going to the harsh environment outside.  Also, understanding the dynamic of the system will be easier inside controlled environment. 

Education Profile

Bsc. in Electrical Engineering, King Abdul Aziz University, Saudi Arabia, 2017)