 Thermal performance augmentation of solar air heater with curved pathSalman Al-Zahrani Energy, 2023, vol. 284, issue C Abstract: Poor heat convection from absorber to airstream limits the benefits of solar air heater (SAH) utilization. This study aims to maximize the extracted heat from the absorber by increasing air flow mixing rate and boundary layers separation process. Thereby, SAHs with smooth curvilinear paths of radiuses of 5 cm (SAH5), 15 cm (SAH15), and 25 cm (SAH25) are introduced. Moreover, CFD is employed to conduct the present study, and model predictions are found to yield good agreement with respect to well-known correlations from literature. The findings reveal that thermal performance of curved SAH does not vary significantly after path's radius of 15 cm. Additionally, data of Nusselt number of SAH15 are found 3–7%, and 55–83% greater than those of SAH5 and conventional SAH, respectively. Nevertheless, data of friction factor of SAH15 are found 3.2–9.6% lower than those of SAH5. Overall, SAH15 contains smaller stagnant areas, yields better flow distribution, and owns higher overall thermal performance with respect to SAH5. Keywords: Solar air heater; Curved path; Nu enhancement; Flow distribution; Overall thermal performance; Solar energy (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:284:y:2023:i:c:s036054422302039x DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.128645 Access Statistics for this article Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser More articles in Energy from Elsevier |
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