Experimental analysis and comparison of flat plate solar air heater with and without integrated sensible heat storage

G. Kalaiarasi, R. Velraj, M.N. Vanjeswaran and N. Ganesh Pandian

Renewable Energy, 2020, vol. 150, issue C, 255-265

Abstract: In the present work, a novel flat plate solar air heater (SAH) has been designed to yield a good outlet air temperature irrespective of fluctuations in solar radiation. It was achieved with the help of a specially designed, integrated absorber plate cum storage unit, together acted as a single component. The integrated unit consists of a set of copper tubes with black painted copper foil, welded longitudinally on two main header tubes. High quality synthetic oil (Therminol-55) had been contained in those copper tubes, which acted as a sensible heat storage medium. To understand the characteristics of the novel SAH, a comparison study was made with a conventional SAH of similar dimensions experimented without any thermal storage. Both the SAHs were tested for three different mass flow rates (0.017 kg/s, 0.02 kg/s and 0.028 kg/s) at one of the hottest cities in India, Madurai. The results show that the novel SAH had operated at a maximum efficiency of 67.7% when the mass flow rate was 0.028 kg/s, before the solar radiation started to decrease around 14:00 h Indian standard time. It also concluded that sensible heat storage at the absorber plate improves the thermal output, therefore leads to a consistent performance.Thus, the SAH with integrated storage unit performed with better efficiency compared to the conventional SAH with no storage.

Keywords: Flat plate solar air heater; Integrated storage unit; Sensible heat storage; Thermal performance analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:150:y:2020:i:c:p:255-265

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2019.12.116

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