Unconventional solar air heater with triangular flow-passage: A CFD based comparative performance assessment of different cross-sectional rib-roughnesses

Rajneesh Kumar and Varun Goel

Renewable Energy, 2021, vol. 172, issue C, 1267-1278

Abstract: Roughness is one of the effective and promising method to improve heat transfer through the solar air heater. The cross-sectional shape of roughness provided on the absorber plate shows a strong influence on solar air heater performance. In this work, the influence of various roughness-elements (such as semi-circular, circular, triangular, square, rectangular) has been investigated on flow dynamics as well as thermal characteristics of solar air heater and these geometries were investigated in triangular passage solar air heater. Commercial software is used for simulating heat and flow dynamics of roughened solar air under steady-state conditions. At Reynolds number of 18.7 × 103, the best thermohydraulic performance parameter (TPP) obtained is 2.75 for forward-chamfered rectangular rib (with e/w = 2). The maximum value of TPP obtained for various roughness geometries decrease in the order of 2.68, 2.57, 2.45, 2.06, 1.79, and 1.60 for backward-chamfered rectangular rib (with e/w = 2), rectangular rib (with e/w = 2), rectangular rib (with e/w = 0.67), square rib, semi-circular rib, and circular ribs, respectively.

Keywords: Solar air heater; Triangular duct; Rib-roughness; CFD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:172:y:2021:i:c:p:1267-1278

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.03.068

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