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of a Rectangular Longitudinal
Satyender Singh1
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
National Institute of Technology,
Finned Solar Air Heater With
Hamirpur 177005,
Himachal Pradesh, India
Semicircular Absorber Plate
e-mail: satyender.nith@gmail.com
Thermal performance of a single-pass single-glass cover solar air heater consisting of
Prashant Dhiman semicircular absorber plate finned with rectangular longitudinal fins is investigated. The
Department of Mechanical Engineering, analysis is carried out for different hydraulic diameters, which were obtained by varying
National Institute of Technology, the diameter of the duct from 0.3–0.5 m. One to five numbers of fins are considered. Reyn-
Hamirpur 177005, olds number ranges from 1600–4300. Analytical solutions for energy balance equations
Himachal Pradesh, India of different elements and duct flow of the solar air heater are presented; results are com-
e-mail: prashant_rec@yahoo.co.in pared with finite-volume methodology based numerical solutions obtained from ANSYS
FLUENT commercial software, and a fairly good agreement is achieved. Moreover, analy-
sis is extended to check the effect of double-glass cover and the recycle of the exiting air.
Results revealed that the use of double-glass cover and recycle operation improves the
thermal performance of solar air heater. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4032010]
1 Introduction improve the thermal performance of solar air heaters but the scope
of air heating using semicircular absorber plate still needs to be
Solar air heaters are designed to collect solar radiations to pro-
explored. The present study contributes toward an alternative for
vide thermal comforts. Various designs of solar air heaters are
air heating using longitudinally finned semicircular absorber plate
available, such as flat-plate solar air heater [1–3] with rectangular
single-glass single-pass solar air heater. Analytical solutions capa-
[4–8] and triangular ducts [9–12]. Due to rapid increasing
ble of predicting thermal performance of the solar air heater in
research in the area of solar air heaters, several researchers sug-
conjunction with finite-volume methodology based numerical sol-
gested to use porous packed-bed materials (media) in the heaters’
utions are presented. In addition to the research, the effect of
ducts in order to increase the thermal performance of solar air
double-glass covers and recycle flow operation on the thermal per-
heaters [13–17]. The voids that exist within the porous packed-
formance of solar air heater is also investigated and the obtained
bed materials increase the convective heat transfer coefficient
results are delineated in the study.
between the packed-bed material and the flowing air, hence results
in increment in the thermal performance of the solar air heater.
It should be noted that an important parameter that has to be con- 2 Analytical Study
sidered while employing the porous materials for the purpose of Three different cases of solar air heater using the same finned
heat transfer rate augmentation is the penalty arising from the semicircular absorber plate are considered for the analytical study.
increased pressure drop. Consequently, the pressure drop is the The schematic drawings are presented in Fig. 1. The recycle oper-
main concern while employing the porous media. Over the past ation is provided by introducing the airflow with mass flow rate,
few decades, many authors have attempted several methods to m_ in , and inlet airflow temperature, Ta, through the heater duct.
lower the pressure drop and to increase the thermal performance Before entering the channel, air with mass flow rate, m_ in mixes
of solar air heaters. Use of transverse or longitudinal fins is one of with the fluid exiting from the heater duct of the mass flow rate,
them. Experimental investigations on the single [18,19] and dou- m_ out G as shown in Fig. 1(c). It is supposed that a conventional
ble [19–22] air pass solar air heaters with finned flat absorber plate blower is situated at the end of the heater duct which regulates the
are reported in the literature. It is illustrated that employment of recycled air mass flow rate, m_ out G. The following assumptions
fins results in increment in the thermal performance with a small are made [1,16]: (i) The system operates under steady-state condi-
expenditure of the pressure loss of solar air heaters under both air tions. (ii) The thickness of the glass covers, the absorber, and insu-
flow arrangements. Current literature of solar air heaters allied to lation is very small, hence their heat capacities are considered
air flow operations revealed some new advancement in the air negligible [1,4,5,19–21]. (iii) The flow is one-dimensional, i.e.,
flow operations, i.e., external [22–24] and internal [25] recycle the temperature of the flowing air varies only in the direction of
operations. Moreover, experimental [26] and theoretical [27,28] flow (x-direction). (iv) Thermophysical properties of the flowing
evaluations of solar air heaters under these recyclic air flow opera- air are assumed to be varying linearly with temperature. (v) There
tions are presented using flat absorber plate with fins attached. is no temperature gradient across the thickness of the glass covers
Results indicate that employment of recycle operation and fins to and the absorber plate. (vi) Heat loss from the sides and recycling
the solar air heater considerably increases the thermal perform- channel of the duct is very small, hence neglected.
ance of the solar air heater. In light of the above reported litera-
ture, it is concluded that significant attention is devoted to
2.1 The Energy Balance Equations for the Various
Elements of Single-Glass Single-Pass Solar Air Heater. The
1
Corresponding author.
glass cover
Contributed by the Solar Energy Division of ASME for publication in the
JOURNAL OF SOLAR ENERGY ENGINEERING: INCLUDING WIND ENERGY AND BUILDING
ENERGY CONSERVATION. Manuscript received March 13, 2015; final manuscript
Ig ag ¼ ½hrðgaÞ þ hw ðTg Ta Þ þ hrðgpÞ ðTg Tp Þ
received November 5, 2015; published online December 8, 2015. Assoc. Editor:
Werner Platzer.
þ hcðgf Þ ðTg Tf Þ (1)
(b) Transition flow system 2300 < Re < 6000 : hrð pglÞ hcð pflÞ
a1 ¼ ; a2 ¼ ;
" 2=3 # 0:14 hrð pglÞ þ hcð pflÞ þ Ub hrð pglÞ þ hcð pflÞ þ Ub
Dh l Ub Ip ap sp
Nu ¼ 0:116ðRe 125ÞPr þ 1 þ
2=3 1=3
a3 ¼ ; a4 ¼ ;
L lw hrð pglÞ þ hcð pflÞ þ Ub hrð pglÞ þ hcð pflÞ þ Ub
(22) Igu agu
a5 ¼ ;
where l is evaluated at the film temperature and lw is evaluated at hrðgupÞ þ hcðguf Þ þ hrðguaÞ þ hw
the wall temperature. hrðgupÞ
(c) Turbulent flow system (Re > 6000): a6 ¼ ;
hrðgupÞ þ hcðguf Þ þ hrðguaÞ þ hw
hcðguf Þ
a7 ¼ ;
Nu ¼ 0:018Re0:8 Pr0:4 (23) hrðgupÞ þ hcðguf Þ þ hrðguaÞ þ hw
hrðguaÞ þ hw
The convective heat transfer coefficient hcðfinf Þ between the air a8 ¼
flowing in the channel and fins is as follows: hrðgupÞ þ hcðguf Þ þ hrðguaÞ þ hw
5 Numerical Study
Numerical solution is carried out for a single-glass single-pass
finned solar air heater. Radiation model is employed followed by
Fig. 3 (a) Isometric view of the meshed domain and (b) cross-
Fig. 2 ANSYS FLUENT employment process sectional veiw of the meshed domain
Parameters Value
System parameters
Collector length, L 1.5 m
Duct width (diameter), w 0.3–0.5 m
Number of fins, n 1, 3, 5
Angle between the fins, h ¼ 180 deg/(n þ 1) 90 deg, 45 deg, 30 deg
Fin height, Hfin 0.05 m
Thermal conductivity of fins, kfin 14.9 W/m K
Thermal conductivity of air, Ka 0.0242 W/m K
Fin thickness, tfin 0.003 m
Emissivity of absorber plate, ep 0.94
Emissivity of glass cover, eg 0.9
Absorptivity of absorber plate, ap 0.95
Absorptivity of glass cover, ag 0.05
Transmissivity of glass cover, sg 0.875
Operating parameters
Ambient temperature, Ta 300 K
Wind velocity, V 1 m/s
Specific heat of air, Cpa 1006 J/kg K
Specific heat of glass, Cpg 2596 J/kg K
Solar insolation, I 800 W/m2
Recycle ratio, G 0.1–1.5
results in increment in the thermal performance. In order to illus- h¼ heat transfer coefficient ðW=m2 KÞ
trate the results obtained for the proposed solar air heater under H¼ height ðmÞ
the effect of recycle operation, results are tabulated in Table 4. It I¼ global solar radiation ðW=m2 Þ
is worth noting from the table that for a fixed value of mass flow k¼ thermal conductivity ðW=m KÞ
rate as the recycle ratio increases, outlet air temperature increases L¼ length of the heater ðmÞ
with further enhancement in the thermal efficiency. However, m_ ¼ mass flow rate ðkg=sÞ
thermal efficiency of the heater is found to be increased with n¼ number of fins
increasing number of fins as the recycle ratio increases. The maxi- Nu ¼ Nusselt number
w
mum value of the outlet air temperature and thermal efficiency is p¼p þw¼ perimeter of duct ðmÞ
found to be 18 C and 82%, respectively, at a mass flow rate of 2 Pr ¼ Prandtl number
0.025 kg/s, recycle ratio of 1.5, duct width of 0.3 m, and five num- Qu ¼ thermal power output (W)
bers of fins. Wherein, significant rise in the thermohydraulic effi- Re ¼ Reynolds number
ciency is also noticed with increasing mass flow rate and recycle. t¼ thickness of fins (m)
As apparent that pressure drop must be higher when solar air T¼ temperature ( C)
heater is operated under recycle operation. However, it should be Ub ¼ back loss coefficient ðW=m2 KÞ
noticed that a negligible difference in the values of the thermal v¼ velocity of air (m/s)
and thermohydraulic efficiencies is obtained under the effect of V¼ wind velocity (m/s)
investigated range of mass flow rate and recycle ratio. That means w¼ width/diameter of the collector (m)
a very small pressure loss is accounting for the investigated range
of input parameters. Hence, the mass flow rate of 0.025 kg/s,
recycle ratio of 1.5, duct width of 0.3 m, and five numbers of fins
Greek Symbols
are advised to be used for the temperature requirements of a¼ absorptivity
15–18 C using longitudinal finned semicircular absorber plate d¼ thickness (m)
solar air heater as an alternative. Table 5 summarized the results e¼ emissivity
of percentage thermal performance enhancement of recycled solar g¼ efficiency
air heater as compared with others. The maximum percentage l¼ dynamic viscosity ðkg=m sÞ
thermal performance enhancement is obtained as 76% when com- q¼ density ðkg=m3 Þ
pared with single-glass single-pass solar air heater at a mass flow s¼ transmissivity
rate of 0.01 kg/s and n ¼ 1, when w ¼ 0.3 m and G ¼ 1.5. /¼ dimensionless quantity
u¼ porosity
7 Conclusions
Subscripts
Thermal performance of a finned semicircular absorber plate
a¼ ambient, air
solar air heater using mass flow rate, recycle ratio, duct
b¼ back plate
width, and number of fins as performance parameters is
c¼ convective, channel
investigated.
f¼ fluid, flow
Three different cases, such as single-glass single-pass,
fin ¼ fin
double-glass single-pass, and double-glass recycle air pass,
fin; b ¼ fin base
are considered for the present analytical study.
g¼ glass
Thermal performance of the solar air heater when operated
i; in ¼ inlet
using double-glass cover as well as recycle operation is
l¼ lower
found to be higher which is obtained as 82%.
m¼ packed-bed material
The proposed double-glass cover finned semicircular
o; out ¼ outlet
absorber plate solar air heater under recycle operation for the
p¼ absorber plate
performance parameter of m_ ¼ 0:025 kg/s, G ¼ 1.5, n ¼ 5,
r¼ radiative
and w ¼ 0.3 is recommended for the temperature require-
th ¼ thermal
ments of 15–18 C as an alternative.
the ¼ thermohydraulic
u¼ upper
Nomenclature w¼ wind
A¼ surface area ðm2 Þ
Ac ¼ cross-sectional area ðm2 Þ References
w
B¼p ntfin ¼ width of the absorber plate (m) [1] Dhiman, P., Thakur, N. S., Kumar, A., and Singh, S., 2011, “An Analytical
2 C¼ coefficient of the equation Model to Predict the Thermal Performance of a Novel Parallel Flow Packed
Bed Solar Air Heater,” Appl. Energy, 88(6), pp. 2157–2167.
Cp ¼ specific heat ðkJ=kg KÞ [2] Forson, F. K., Nazha, M. A. A., and Rajakaruna, H., 2003, “Experimental and
Dh ¼ hydraulic diameter ðmÞ Simulation Studies on a Single Pass, Double Duct Solar Air Heater,” Energy
G ¼ recycle ratio Convers. Manage., 44(8), pp. 1209–1227.