Experimental Study of a Solar Air Heater With a New Arrangement of Transverse Longitudinal Baffles

Abstract

This study presents a new design for improving the convection heat transfer coefficients of double-pass solar air heater. Three cases were described by using a different number of transverse baffles (three, five, and seven) in the lower channel of the collectors; steel mesh sheets were also used to enlarge the heat transfer area. All collectors have a space of 25 mm between its glass covers and a 50 mm depth of air channel. Furthermore, this work examined the effect of air flow rate and baffles number on device's thermal efficiency and outlet temperature. The experimental results indicate raises in the thermal efficiency as the air flow rate goes from 0.011 kg/s to 0.038 kg/s. A maximum efficiency of 68% was obtained from the case of seven baffles at the air flow rate of 0.038 kg/s. Moreover, the difference between collector's inlet and outlet temperatures, ΔT, indicated an inverse relationship with air flow rate. Thus, the results show ΔT increases as the air flow rate reduced. The maximum temperature difference recorded was 54 °C, which achieved using seven baffled solar air heater at 0.011 kg/s air flow rate in the middle of the day. It has also been found that thermal efficiency of double-pass solar air heater is greater than single-pass solar air heater, using same air flow rate and number of baffles. Finally, the pressure drop associated with increasing the number of baffles and air flow rate was deliberated.