Effect of air leak on long term performance of air heater

In this paper, the effect of an air leak on the air heater performance is investigated. “Air leaking in” and “air leaking out” systems are examined. The effect of various parameters like leakage rate, mass flow rate, solar insolation, plate length and ambient temperature has been studied. The possibility that air leakage can take place from any where along the length of the collector has been incorporated in the model. It is found that, for “air leaking in” systems, efficiency goes up, while for “air leaking out” systems, efficiency decreases from the no-leak situation, and it depends on the position of the leak.