Numerical investigation of performance analysis of Triangular Solar air heater using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

Abstract

Abstract Computational fluid dynamics based research is performed to investigate the thermal efficiency of triangular solar air heater (TSAH) passage. A systematic analysis of the device output parameters was carried out controlled under all test conditions including solar intensity, mass flow rate and air temperature at the inlet section. The glazing side of the triangular section is subjected to the solar intensity 746 W/m2. The three-dimensional TSAH model is developed and simulated using the FVM method with CFD code. The flow control equations have been solved with commercial ANSYS 14.5 software.A uniform triangular grid is generated according to the configuration using tetrahedron. The k-ε, RNG turbulence model with enhanced wall treatment function is used to solve the energy transport equations for turbulent flow. The optimal values of the geometric parameters are obtained on the basis of the performance index in the Reynolds number range from 2263 to 18103.It is observed the value of thermal efficiency increases with respect to velocity of air. It also increases the absorber and glass plate temperature.