Experimental Study of Reverse Flow Solar Air Heater Having Perforation and Delta Wing on Absorber Plate

Abstract

fThe traditional solar air heater (SAH) has poor thermal performance due to low heat transfer coefficient. Artificial roughness, flow passage alteration, absorber modification, etc. can enhance it. Thus, an experimental investigation is performed to study the thermohydraulic characteristics of a reverse flow SAH with perforated absorber and delta wing (DW) structure. The present study investigates the effect of attack angle (15°–75°) at constant streamwise pitch (35 mm), transverse pitch (70 mm), height (h), and width (w) of DW 20 mm, under Reynolds number (Re) ranging from 4000 to 20 000. The perforation index (PI = ADW/Aap) for inline and staggered arrangements are 9.52 and 4.76, respectively. The results indicate that the concept of perforated absorber and DW leads to enhanced heat transfer, reduced pressure drops, and enhanced utilization of solar energy. The Nusselt number (Nu), friction factor (f), and thermohydraulic performance enhance about 6.6, 9.4, and 3.06 times, respectively, at attack angle 75o for inline arrangement of DW over the smooth duct. Thermohydraulic performance of reversed‐flow SAH is compared with previously published works, and it highlights that the full‐length inline and staggered arrangement of the DW offers the most significant improvements in heat transfer and friction factor.