A CFD-adjoint reverse design of transverse rib profile for enhancing thermo-hydraulic performance in the solar air heater

Pu Zhang, Peng Xia, Xueyan Guo, Shaozhang Xie and Wensheng Ma

Renewable Energy, 2022, vol. 198, issue C, 587-601

Abstract: Artificial ribs interrupting the viscous sublayer beneath the absorbing plate are used to enhance SAH heat efficiency. In the present study, the CFD-adjoint reverse design method is developed to intelligently design the rib profile. Based on the zero-order CFD solution, the shape sensitivity of the rib profile is calculated by the CFD-adjoint solver, which identifies the profile characteristics to improve thermo-hydraulic performance (THPP). According to the shape sensitivity, the reverse design is conducted with geometrical constraints, optimization algorithms, and mesh deformation. To maximize THPP, five novel ribs are reversely designed under Reynolds numbers ranging from 4000 to 16000. The flow and heat transfer characteristics of the reversely designed ribs indicate the CFD-adjoint reverse design is in accord with the theory that turbulence enhances heat transfer in the boundary layer. The Nusselt number of the novel ribs is averagely 1.9 times compared with the smooth. The THPP of the novel ribs approaches the local maximum at the design Reynolds number with the average THPP of 1.51.

Keywords: Rib profile; CFD-Adjoint; Reverse design; Thermo-hydraulic performance; SAH (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148122012733
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:198:y:2022:i:c:p:587-601

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2022.08.098

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().