Performance enhancement of solar air heater with two-sided curvilinear transverse rib: Experimental and numerical investigation

Abstract

Solar energy as prime energy source draws attention of world due to its availability and eco-friendliness. Low performance of solar air heater create curiosity for researchers to increase its performance. To enhance performance of solar air heater active and passive techniques used by researcher. Surface modification is one of the most prominent passive techniques to improve the performance. Present experimental and numerical investigation explore thermal characteristics of two-sided curvilinear rib roughened solar air heater. An indoor experiment was performed on two side curvilinear rib roughened absorber plate having constant heat flux of 1000 W/m². Parallelly 2-dimensional numerical simulation was also performed to explore flow behavior and to complete investigation within optimum cost. ANSYS Fluent 2021.R was used for performing this simulation with K-ε RNG model with enhanced wall treatment. Velocity inlet and pressure outlet was selected as boundary condition. Main roughness and flow parameters were relative roughness height (e/D_h = 0.21–0.042), relative roughness pitch (p/e = 7.14–35.71), and Reynolds number (Re = 3800–18,000). Maximum value of Nusselt number improvement ratio and friction factor improvement ratio was 3.17 and 3.26 at roughness and flow parameter of (e/D_h = 0.042, p/e = 15, Re = 15,000) and (e/D_h = 0.042, p/e = 7.14, Re = 3800) respectively. Thermohydraulic performance parameter achieved its maximum value of 2.77 at e/D_h = 0.042, p/e = 17.85, and Re = 18,000.

Keywords

Solar air heater numerical simulation curvilinear rib relative roughness pitch relative roughness height Nusselt number friction factor

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Sharma

Tiwari

Sood

. Solar energy in India: strategies, policies, perspectives and future potential. Renew Sustain Energ Rev 2012; 16(1): 933–941.

Foster

Ghassemi

Cota

. Solar energy: renewable energy and the environment. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2009.

Duffie

Beckman

Blair

. Solar engineering of thermal processes, photovoltaics and wind. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2020.

Vliet

. Principles of Solar Engineering. J Sol Energ Eng 2000; 122(2): 114.

McAdams

Kennel

Addoms

. Heat transfer to superheated steam at high pressures. Trans Am Soc Mech Eng 1950; 72(4): 421–428.

Joule

VIII . On the surface-condensation of steam. Philos Trans R Soc Lond 1861; 151: 133–160.

Nikuradse

. Laws of flow in rough pipes. 1950.

Singh Yadav

Kumar Thapak

. Artificially roughened solar air heater: Experimental investigations. Renew Sustain Energ Rev 2014; 36: 370–411.

Faujdar

Agrawal

. Computational fluid dynamics based numerical study to determine the performance of triangular solar air heater duct having perforated baffles in V-down pattern mounted underneath absorber plate. Sol Energy 2021; 228: 235–252.

10.

Yadav

Bhagoria

. A numerical investigation of square sectioned transverse rib roughened solar air heater. Int J Therm Sci 2014; 79: 111–131.

11.

Patel

Jain

Lakhera

. Thermo-hydraulic performance analysis of a solar air heater roughened with discrete reverse NACA profile ribs. Int J Therm Sci 2021; 167: 107026.

12.

Patel

Lanjewar

. Heat transfer enhancement using additional gap in symmetrical element of V-geometry roughened solar air heater. J Energy Storage 2021; 38: 102545.

13.

Sureandhar

Srinivasan

Muthukumar

, et al. Performance analysis of arc rib fin embedded in a solar air heater. Therm Sci Eng Prog 2021; 23: 102069.

14.

Kumar

. Thermal and thermohydraulic performance analysis of three sides artificially roughened solar collectors. Sol Energy 2019; 190: 212–227.

15.

Kumar

Layek

. Thermo-hydraulic performance of solar air heater having twisted rib over the absorber plate. Int J Therm Sci 2018; 133: 181–195.

16.

Kumar

Goel

. Performance improvement and development of correlation for friction factor and heat transfer using computational fluid dynamics for ribbed triangular duct solar air heater. Renew Energy 2019; 131: 788–799.

17.

Yadav

Bhagoria

. A CFD (computational fluid dynamics) based heat transfer and fluid flow analysis of a solar air heater provided with circular transverse wire rib roughness on the absorber plate. Energy 2013; 55: 1127–1142.

18.

Varun Kumar

Manikandan

Rajesh Kanna

. Enhancement of heat transfer in SAH with polygonal and trapezoidal shape of the rib using CFD. Energy 2021; 234: 121154.

19.

Promvonge

Skullong

. Thermal characteristics in solar air duct with V-shaped flapped-baffles and chamfered-grooves. Int J Heat Mass Transf 2021; 172: 121154.

20.

Alam

Kim

. Heat transfer enhancement in solar air heater duct with conical protrusion roughness ribs. Appl Therm Eng 2017; 126: 458–469.

21.

Yadav

Bhagoria

. A CFD based thermo-hydraulic performance analysis of an artificially roughened solar air heater having equilateral triangular sectioned rib roughness on the absorber plate. Int J Heat Mass Transf 2014; 70: 1016–1039.

22.

Gawande

Dhoble

Zodpe

, et al. Experimental and CFD investigation of convection heat transfer in solar air heater with reverse L-shaped ribs. Sol Energy 2016; 131: 275–295.

23.

Mahanand

Senapati

. Thermo-hydraulic performance analysis of a solar air heater (SAH) with quarter-circular ribs on the absorber plate: a comparative study. Int J Therm Sci 2021; 161: 106747.

24.

Jin

Zhang

Wang

, et al. Numerical investigation of heat transfer and fluid flow in a solar air heater duct with multi V-shaped ribs on the absorber plate. Energy 2015; 89: 178–190.

25.

Jin

Quan

Zuo

, et al. Numerical investigation of heat transfer enhancement in a solar air heater roughened by multiple V-shaped ribs. Renew Energy 2019; 134: 78–88.

26.

Promvonge

Promthaisong

Skullong

. Heat transfer augmentation in solar heat exchanger duct with louver-punched V-baffles. Sol Energy 2022; 248: 103–120.

27.

Promvonge

Promthaisong

Skullong

. Experimental and numerical thermal performance in solar receiver heat exchanger with trapezoidal louvered winglet and wavy groove. Sol Energy 2022; 236: 153–174.