Modeling the heat exchanges in a solar air heater with a cover partially transparent to infrared radiations

In this paper, the heat exchanges in a plastic cover solar air heater are analysed and an explicit expression of the temperature of the air flowing in that collector is developed as a function of the space coordinate in the flow direction and the time dependent solar intensity. Then the effect of various parameters such as the inlet air temperature, the distance between the absorber and the transparent cover and the air flow on the dynamic behaviour of the collector are studied.     

An optimum performance of flat-type solar air heater with porous absorber

This investigation is concerned with the design and performance of a flat-type solar air heater in which air flows perpendicularly from the transparent cover to a porous absorber plate. The design phase involved a stability analysis to determine the critical distance (maximum allowable distance) between the absober and transparent cover, for suppressing convection currents, at various environmental and operating conditions. These results are useful to designers of solar collectors of the proposed type. In addition, the thermal performance of this solar heater at its optimum design conditions was computed for a wide range of system parameters illustrating the contribution of conduction and radiative modes of heat transfer. The results indicate that the best operating efficiency can be obtained when running the collector with a mass flow rate of m > 40 kg/m².h. Furthermore, the collector thermal performance is superior than channel type solar air heaters operating under similar conditions and much simpler than honeycomb porous bed solar air heaters.     

带透明蜂窝盖板和辅助反射面的整体式太阳热水器

作者对一种带透明蜂窝盖板和辅助反射面的整体式(ICS)太阳热水器进行了实验研究。该太阳热水器采用截面为三角形的水箱，水箱背面和侧面用30mm聚苯乙烯泡沫隔热，其它两个面为吸热面。底吸热面利用辅助反射面加热，而上吸热面则覆盖5cm的透明蜂窝及2mm的有机玻璃板。这种设计加大了ICS太阳热水器的吸热面积，同时也降低了吸热面向环境的热损。对实验结果的分析表明，该热水器的热效率不高，但保温性能很好。     

Diurnal response of solar air heaters

A time-dependent heat transfer model has been developed to predict the diurnal performance of a conventional solar air heater which consists of a flat passage between two metallic plates through which the heating fluid (air) is made to pass. The effect of various parameters such as the heat capacities of the glass cover, the absorbing plate and the air streams, as well as the heat transfer coefficient from the absorbing plate to the air stream, have been investigated. It is found that the heat capacities of the glass cover and the absorber do not alter the performance characteristics of the solar air heater while the heat capacity of the air stream significantly influences both the rise in temperature of the fluid and the shift in phase. However, the effective heat transfer coefficient from the absorbing plate to the air stream significantly affects the diurnal response of a solar air heater.     

Shape optimization for absorber plates of solar air collectors

Solar air heaters can be used for many applications at low and moderate temperatures. There are different factors affecting the solar air heater efficiency, e.g. collector length, collector depth, type of absorber plate, glass cover plate, wind speed, etc. The absorber shape factor is the most important parameter in the design for any type of solar air heater. Increasing the absorber shape area will increase the heat transfer to the flowing air, but on the other hand, will increase the pressure drop in the collector, this increases the required power consumption to pump the air flow crossing the collector. It was most important to find the optimizing angle of the triangular collector. The effect of the change of the absorber shape factor on the collector performance was studied. A theoretical model was constructed for the two types of collectors, taking into account the new parameter, called the absorber shape factor. The results can be used for all types of solar air heaters by changing the value of the absorber shape factor. The optimum angle of the triangular collector was deduced.     

Performance of suspended flat plate air heater

In this communication, a heat transfer model to predict the transient behaviour of a suspended flat plate solar collector with constant flow of fluid (air) above the absorber has been presented. A reflecting sheet with an air gap between the absorber plate and bottom insulation to reduce heat loss has been used. The effect, on performance of the air heater, of the parameters viz, spacing between cover and plate, heat capacity of air and absorber plate, flow rate of fluid and collector length have been studied. The effect of changing the averaging inlet temperature with varying collector length has also been studied.     

Heat loss coefficients and effective πα products for flat-plate collectors with diathermanous covers

This paper presents an efficient algorithm for solving the set of nonlinear equations governing the total heat transfer across an arbitrary number of parallel flat plate solar collector covers, each of which can be partly transparent to longwave thermal radiation. The governing equations are sufficiently general to permit each cover to have assymetric radiative properties and to account for absorption of solar energy on the individual covers. This theory is shown to be in good agreement with the approximate equations of Whillier (provided certain interpretations are placed on his quantities) and with experiments using a plastic inner cover and bounding plates of various emissivities. Using this theory, it is demonstrated that if the absorber plate has a selective surface, an inner cover transparent to long wave radiation is to be preferred over one which is opaque.     

Experimental study of heat transfer coefficient with rectangular baffle fin of solar air heater

This paper presents an experimental analysis of a single pass solar air collector with, and without using baffle fin. The heat transfer coefficient between the absorber plate and air can be considerably increased by using artificial roughness on the bottom plate and under the absorber plate of a solar air heater duct. An experimental study has been conducted to investigate the effect of roughness and operating parameters on heat transfer. The investigation has covered the range of Reynolds number Re from 1259 to 2517 depending on types of the configuration of the solar collectors. Based on the experimental data, values of Nusselt number Nu have been determined for different values of configurations and operating parameters. To determine the enhancement in heat transfer and increment in thermal efficiency, the values of Nusselt have been compared with those of smooth duct under similar flow conditions.     

Effect of artificial roughness on heat transfer and friction factor in a solar air heater

Convective heat transfer coefficient between absorber plate and air in a flat-plate solar air heater can be enhanced by providing the absorber plate with artificial roughness. An investigation of fully developed turbulent flow in a solar air heater duct with small diameter protrusion wires on the absorber plate has been carried out and expressions for prediction of average Stanton number and average friction factor have been developed. The results of these expressions have been compared with available data. The results have been found to compare with a mean deviation of 6.3% for friction factor and −10.7% for the Nusselt number. The effect of height and pitch of the roughness elements on the heat transfer rate and friction has also been investigated.     

A review of the performance of double pass solar air heater

Improvement of the thermal performance of a solar air heater can be obtained by enhancing the rate of heat transfer. The thermal efficiency of double pass solar air heater is higher in comparison to single pass with the concept involved of doubling the heat transfer area without increase in the system cost. Numbers of studies have been carried out on the performance analysis of double pass solar air heater provided with heat transfer augmentation techniques viz. using extended surfaces, packed bed, corrugated absorber were reported in the literature and found more increase in the thermal efficiency in comparison to conventional double duct solar air heater. These studies includes the design of double pass solar air heater, heat transfer enhancement, flow phenomenon and pressure drop in duct. This paper presents an extensive study of the research carried out on double pass solar air heater. Based on the literature review, it is concluded that most of the studies carried out on double pass solar air heater integrated with porous media and extended surfaces. Few studies were carried out with corrugated absorber. Further no study has been reported so far on double pass solar air heater with absorber plate artificially roughened from both the sides. Mathematical models based on energy analysis of some configurations of solar air heater have been discussed.     

EVALUATION OF PERFORATED PLATE SOLAR AIR HEATER

Perforated plates had been successfully used in recent years to achieve high heat transfer coefficient from the absorber plate to the flowing air stream in solar air heaters. Since pumping pressure to maintain a particular flow in the solar air heater utilizing this type of absorber has significant influence on collected energy, so the design of perforated plate configuration must be based on the net energy gained from that collector which is the difference between energy collected and energy paid to overcome pumping pressure. A mathematical model had been constructed and validated experimentally for perforated plate solar air heater to study the effect of plate configurations and airflow rate on both energy gained and pressure loss. The results show that, the flow rate of air and plate configurations have a great effect on net energy gained from the air heater. The results also show that a plate of certain configurations operates most efficiently at certain flow rate and more than one configurations can give optimum value of net energy gained for a particular flow rate.     

Optimization of flow-channel depth for conventional flat-plate solar air heaters

An analytical criterion for determining the optimum flow-channel depth of conventional flat-plate solar air heaters has been developed. The criterion gives the minimum channel-depth required to maximize the useful heat gain from the absorber plate to the flowing air for a particular pumping power. A parametric study was carried out to validate the engineering accuracy of the optimization criterion which was found to be considerably accurate over the entire range of variables covered. An expression for estimating the channel-depth-to-length ratio that yields an outlet air temperature equal to the absorber-plate mean temperature is also derived in terms of flow pumping power. This expression is of great importance for designers of this type of solar air heater.     

Mathematical modeling of a box-type solar cooker employing an asymmetric compound parabolic concentrator

A novel design of solar cooker is introduced. The cooker is of box-type equipped with an asymmetric compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) as booster-reflector. It consists of an insulated box equipped with a vertical double glazing cover on a side, and a vertical absorber plate laid out just behind the transparent cover. The booster-reflector is fixed on the glazed side of the box. The absorber plate and the glazing form a vertical channel, open at the top and bottom, and enclosed at the sides. The two openings allow the inside air circulation. A mathematical model of the heat transfer processes involved with this solar cooker, containing a cooking pot loaded with water and deposited on the box floor; was developed and the effects of various parameters, such as solar radiation, load of water and clouds on the dynamic behavior of the cooker are studied.     

Experimental investigation of thermal performance of a double-flow solar air heater having aluminium cans

This study experimentally investigates a device for inserting an absorbing plate made of aluminium cans into the double-pass channel in a flat-plate solar air heater (SAH). This method substantially improves the collector efficiency by increasing the fluid velocity and enhancing the heat-transfer coefficient between the absorber plate and air. These types of collectors had been designed as a proposal to use aluminium materials to build absorber plates of SAHs at a suitable cost. The collector had been covered with a 4-mm single glass plate, in order to reduce convective loses to the atmosphere. Three different absorber plates had been designed and tested for experimental study. In the first type (Type I), cans had been staggered as zigzag on absorber plate, while in Type II they were arranged in order. Type III is a flat plate (without cans). Experiments had been performed for air mass flow rates of 0.03 kg/s and 0.05 kg/s. The highest efficiency had been obtained for Type I at 0.05 kg/s. Also, comparison between the thermal efficiency of the SAH tested in this study with the ones reported in the literature had been presented, and a good agreement had been found.     

Evaluation of a jet plate solar air heater

To achieve higher heat transfer from the absorber plate to the flowing air stream with an intention to increase the amount of the collected energy, and hence, to improve the efficiency of an air-based solar collector, a unique jet impingement concept has been advanced for evaluation in the present study. To investigate the effects of various geometrical parameters such as the ‘hole’ or ‘nozzle’ diameter on the jet plate, their interspacings, the nozzle height, the distance between the absorber and the jet plate and the operational parameter such as the velocity of air impinging out of the holes/nozzles on to the back side of the absorber surface on the performance parameters of the jet impingement concept air heater, a detailed theoretical parametric analysis has been made on the design for different mass flow rates of air and different lengths of air channel. A parallel study has also been carried out on a conventional parallel plate air heater in order to compare its air temperature increment and performance efficiency with those of the jet plate air heater. The gain in air temperature increment and performance efficiency of the jet-concept air heater over that of the parallel plate air heater with duct depth 10 cm and length 2 m is 15.5°C to 2.5°C and 26.5% to 19%, respectively, for air flow rates in the range 50 to 250 kg/hm².     

Performance studies on flat plate solar air heater subjected to various flow patterns

The performance of flat plate solar air heater subjected to various flow patterns (over flow, under flow and double pass) were experimentally investigated. An aluminium flat plate of 1.2. × 0.7 m² size was employed as absorber plate. Two glass plates of similar size were used as protection for heat loss from absorber plate to atmosphere. Performance of the solar air heater at various mass flow rates (0.014, 0.0279 and 0.042 kg/s) was also reported. Thermal efficiency is recorded higher during double pass experimental conditions. Heat gained by air is found higher at experimental conditions having double pass when compared with over flow and under flow.     

Thermal performance investigation of double pass-finned plate solar air heater

In this paper, the double pass-finned plate solar air heater was investigated theoretically and experimentally. An analytical model for the air heater was presented. Numerical calculations had been performed under Tanta (latitude, 30° 47′N and longitude, 31°E) prevailing weather conditions. The theoretical predictions indicated that the agreement with the measured performance is fairly good. Comparisons between the measured outlet temperatures of flowing air, temperature of the absorber plate and output power of the double pass-finned and v-corrugated plate solar air heaters were also presented. The effect of mass flow rates of air on pressure drop, thermal and thermohydraulic efficiencies of the double pass-finned and v-corrugated plate solar air heaters were also investigated. The results showed that the double pass v-corrugated plate solar air heater is 9.3–11.9% more efficient compared to the double pass-finned plate solar air heater. It was also indicated that the peak values of the thermohydraulic efficiencies of the double pass-finned and v-corrugated plate solar air heaters were obtained when the mass flow rates of the flowing air equal 0.0125 and 0.0225 kg/s, respectively.     

The effect of plane booster reflectors on the performance of a solar air heater with solar cells suitable for a solar dryer

We present a theoretical study of a solar photovoltaic-thermal (hybrid) system consisting of a flat-plate solar air heater mounted with solar cells and a plane booster. A conventional flat-plate collector is converted into a hybrid system by mounting solar cells directly on the absorber plate. A hybrid system is self-sufficient in the sense that the electrical energy required by the pump is supplied by the panel. Such systems are well suited to applications such as solar drying. The combined system is analysed for the case when the radiative and absorptive properties of the cell surface and the absorber plate are nearly the same. The solar cell efficiency is a linearly-decreasing function of the absorber plate temperature. The performance of the system has been evaluated for various combinations of boosters. The minimum area of the solar cells required to run the pump at a given flow rate has been calculated as a function of time, with and without boosters. The minimum cell area required decreases with the use of boosters. High cost cells may be replaced by low cost reflectors. The solar air heaters presently available on the market are not suitable for direct conversion to hybrid systems.     

Performance of various design of solar air heaters for crop drying applications

Different heat sources are employed for the drying of agricultural products. However, in many rural locations in most developing countries, supplies of non-renewable sources of energy are either unavailable, unreliable or, for many farmers, too expensive. In renewable energy sources, solar energy is the most appropriate for drying systems. This energy allows independent systems to be constructed and possesses a thermal conversion mode which necessitates a simple technology which is adapted to the rural regions for crop drying applications. These systems are all based on the air heating flat plate solar collectors.Therefore, six different types of natural circulation air heating solar collectors (Model-1: single plastic glazing, black painted hardboard absorber and front-pass; Model-2: single plastic glazing, black painted flat plate absorber and front-pass; Model-3: single plastic glazing, black painted zigzag plate absorber and front-pass; Model-4: single plastic glazing, black painted flate plate absorber and back-pass; Model-5: single plastic glazing, black painted zigzag plate absorber and back-pass; Model-6: double plastic glazing, black painted flat plate absorber and back-pass) were designed, constructed and analysed for their performance in this study. Each collector mainly consisted of a frame constructed from hardboard, vent holes, hardboard insulation, absorbing surface made of black coated aluminium sheet and clear plastic glazing.All solar air heaters were mounted on a stand facing south at an inclination angle, and they were tested simultaneously under the same environmental conditions. The experimental setup was instrumented for the measurement of solar radiation, temperature and relative humidity of the atmosphere air, outlet air temperature, surface temperature of the back and edge insulator and absorber plate, air speed and wind velocity.It is understood from the results of the investigation that the performances of Model-1, Model-2, Model-3, Model-4, Model-5 and Model-6 are 42.11, 45.88, 44.23, 39.76, 39.05 and 36.94% respectively, and the performance of the most efficient collector (Model-2) is aproximately 9% more than the least efficient one (Model-6). In addition, it is seen that unlike number of glazing sheet and air pass method, the effect of the shape of the absorbing surface on the performance is considerably less.     

Study and optimization of the thermal performances of the offset rectangular plate fin absorber plates, with various glazing

The low thermophysical characteristics of air used as a heat transfer fluid in the solar collectors with thermal conversion require a fully developed turbulent flow. This increases the thermal heat transfer between the absorber plate and the fluid, which clearly improves the thermal performances of the solar collector with obstacles arranged into the air channel duct. In the present work, we introduce, in solar collector, the offset rectangular plate fins, which are used in heat exchangers. An experimental investigation carried out showed the generated enhancement of thermal performance. The offset rectangular plate fins, mounted in staggered pattern, are oriented parallel to the fluid flow and are soldered to the underside of absorber plate. They are characterized by high heat transfer area per unit volume. High thermal performances are obtained with low pressure losses and in consequence a low electrical power consumption by the fan in comparison to the flat plate collector. The experimental results are all so compared by using two types of transparent cover; double and triple.