A Descriptive Review to Access the Most Suitable Rib’s Configuration of Roughness for the Maximum Performance of Solar Air Heater

Karmveer, Naveen Kumar Gupta, Tabish Alam, Raffaello Cozzolino and Gino Bella
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Karmveer: Department of Mechanical Engineering, GLA University, Mathura 281406, Uttar Pradesh, India
Naveen Kumar Gupta: Department of Mechanical Engineering, GLA University, Mathura 281406, Uttar Pradesh, India
Tabish Alam: CSIR—Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee 247667, Uttarakhand, India
Raffaello Cozzolino: Department of Engineering, University of Rome Niccolò Cusano, 00166 Roma, Italy
Gino Bella: Department of Engineering, University of Rome Niccolò Cusano, 00166 Roma, Italy

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-46

Abstract: Solar air heater is considered to be the most popular and widely used solar thermal system. Solar air heater (SAH) can be used in many applications, ranging from domestic to industrial purposes. However, it seems that the viability of SAH is not feasible due to the following two reasons: (i) the low convective heat transfer coefficient at the absorber plate is the reason that causes a low heat transfer rate to the flowing air, and (ii) the high temperature of the absorber plate insists on high heat losses, thus, reducing the thermal efficiency. The convective coefficient can be augmented by placing turbulators/roughness on the absorber plate, which induces turbulence in the flow passage near the absorber plate by disrupting and destabilizing the laminar sublayer. This comprehensive review has been presented to summarize the studies on artificial roughness/turbulators geometries to enhance the heat transfer rate. Various rib configurations (such as grits, grooves, blockages, baffles, winglets, protrusions, twisted taps, dimples, and mesh wires) and distinct arrangements of rib roughness (such as inclined, transverse, V shape, with gap) have been reviewed to present heat transfer and friction characteristics. Additionally, thermal efficiency and thermohydraulic efficiency (in terms of net effective efficiency) of various artificial roughnesses and rib configurations are presented under distinct operating conditions for comparing purposes. This comparative study has been presented to assess the most desirable ribs and their configurations. On the basis of net effective efficiency, a multiarc rib with gaps is found to be the best configuration among all and have the highest thermal and net effective efficiency of around 79%.

Keywords: roughness; performance; solar air heater; friction factor; Nusselt number; augmentation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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