Performances of packed bed double pass solar air heater with different inclinations and transverse wire mesh with different intervals

Abstract

Solar air heating is a technology in which the solar energy from the sun is captured by an absorbing medium and used to heat the air flowing through the heater. In this study, thermal performance of a double pass solar air heater has been investigated experimentally at different conditions. The experiments were conducted with different inclinations of the collector, with and without wire mesh vertically fixed at the second pass in transverse direction and with different mass flow rates. The effect of air mass flow rate, wire mesh pitch and collector inclination on temperature rise and thermal efficiency have been studied. Results show that efficiency increases with mass flow rate. For the same mass flow rate, the thermal efficiency increases with the decrease in the wire mesh pitch. The maximum daily average efficiency of air heater was 79.8% at 0.025 kg/s mass flow rate, 10 cm wire mesh gap and 9ยบ collector inclination facing south. The highest collector efficiency was observed in solar air heaters with 10 cm wire mesh gap.

Keywords

Dates

  • Submission Date2013-10-15
  • Revision Date2014-06-26
  • Acceptance Date2014-06-28
  • Online Date2014-08-10

DOI Reference

10.2298/TSCI131015085S

References

  1. Sachunanathan, S., Deonarine, S., A two-pass solar air heater, Solar Energy, 15(1973), 1, pp.41-49
  2. Mohamad, A. A., High efficiency solar air heater, Solar Energy, 60(1997), 2, pp.71-76
  3. Esen, H., Experimental Energy and Exergy analysis of a double-flow solar air heater having different obstacles on absorber plates, Build Environ, 54(2008), 6, pp.1046-1054
  4. Ozgen, F., et al. Experimental investigation of thermal performance of a double-flow solar air heater having aluminium cans, Renewable Energy, 34(2009), 11, pp.2391-2398
  5. Yeh, H.M., et al., Collector efficiency of double-flow solar air heaters with fins attached, Energy, 261 27(2002), 8, pp.715-727.
  6. Ramadan, M.R.I., et al., Thermal performance of a packed bed double-pass solar air heater, Energy, 32(2007), 8, pp.1524-1535
  7. . El-Sebaii, et al., Year round performance of double pass solar air heater with packed bed, Energy Convers Manage, 48(2007), 3, pp.990-1003
  8. Jain, D., Jain, R.K., Performance evaluation of an inclined multi-pass solar air heater with in-built thermal storage on deep-bed drying application, J Food Eng, 65(2004), 4, pp.497-509
  9. Gupta, M.K., Kaushik, S.C., Performance evaluation of solar air heater for various artificial roughness geometries based on energy, Effective and exergy efficiencies, Renewable Energy,34(2009), 3, pp.465-476.
  10. Varun, et al., Performance prediction of solar air heater having roughened duct provided with transverse and inclined ribs as artificial roughness, Renewable Energy,34(2009), 12, pp.2914-2922
  11. Romdhane, B.S., The air solar collectors: Comparative study, Introduction of baffles to favor the heat transfer, Solar Energy, 81(2007), 1, pp.139-149
  12. Sopian, K., et al., Evaluation of thermal efficiency of double-pass solar collector with porous- 275 nonporous media, Renewable Energy, 34(2009), 3, pp.640-645
  13. Tyagi, V.V., et al., Review on solar air heating system with and without thermal energy 277 storage system, Renewable and Sustainable energy reviews,16(2012), 4, pp.2289-2303
  14. Krishnananth, S.S., Murugavel, K.K., Experimental study on double pass solar air heater with 279 thermal energy storage, Journal of King Saud University - Engineering Sciences, 25(2013), 2, pp.135-280 140
  15. Mittal, M.K., Varshney, L., Optimal thermal-hydraulic performance of a wire mesh packed bed 282 solar air heater, Solar Energy, 80(2006), 9, pp.1112-1120
  16. Prasad, S.B., et al., Investigation of heat transfer and friction characteristics of packed bed solar 284 air heater using wire mesh as packing material, Solar Energy, 83(2009), 5, pp.773-783
  17. Aldabbagh, L.B.Y., et al., Single and double pass solar air heaters with wire mesh as packing 286 bed, Energy, 35(2010), pp.3783-3787
  18. El-khawajah, M.F., et al., The effect of using transverse fins on a double pass flow solar air heater 288 using wire mesh as an absorber, Solar Energy, 85(2011), 9, pp.1479-1487
  19. Omojaro, A.P., Aldabbagh, L.B.Y., Experimental performance of single and double pass solar air 290 heater with fins and steel wire mesh as absorber, Applied Energy, 87(2010), 12, pp.3759-3765
  20. Youcef-Ali, S., Study and optimization of the thermal performances of the offset rectangular plate 292 fin absorber plates, with various glazing, Renewable Energy, 30(2005), 2, pp.271-280
  21. Aissa, W., et al., An Experimental investigation of forced Convection Flat plate solar air heater 294 with storage material, Thermal science, 16(2012), 4, pp.1105-1116
  22. Mohseni Languri, E., et al., An Energy and Exergy study of a Solar Thermal air collector, 296 Thermal science, 13(2009), 1, pp. 205-216
  23. Rachid Saim., et al., Computational Analysis of Transient turbulent flow and conjugate heat 298 transfer characteristics in a solar Collector panel with internal, rectangular fins and baffles, Thermal 299 Science, 14(2010), 1, pp.221-234
  24. Holman, JP., Experimental methods for engineers, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989
  25. Sharma, VK., et al., Design and development of a matrix type solar air heater, Energy Conversion 303 and Management, 31(1991), 4, pp.379-388
  26. Singh, D., et al., Thermal performance of a matrix air heater, Energy Res, 6(1982), 2, pp.103-110