Energy, exergy, and economic analysis of tubular solar air heater with porous material: An experimental study

Abstract

• Solar air heater having new designed tubular absorber is examined experimentally. • Assessment of the new tubular air heater with porous medium is presented. • Using porous material with tubular heater enhances its energy efficiency by 8.9% • Using porous media with tubular heater enhances its exergy efficiency by 8.2% • Tubular air heater is more effective compared to flat one based 4E analyses. The performance of solar air heater of having a new design tubular absorber of adjacent parallel tubes called tubular is investigated experimentally via energy, exergy, energy payback time, exergoeconomic, and enviroeconomic approaches. Moreover, the impact of utilizing porous material on the tubular heat performance is analyzed and compared to flat plate air heater at air mass flow rates; 0.075, 0.05, and 0.025 kg/s for single and double passes. Results indicate that the tubular heater has higher net energy gain, output air temperature, energy and exergy efficiencies, and smaller energy loss compared to the flat heater. Using porous material and double pass increases the output air temperature of tubular air heater by 3.4 °C and flat one by 17.7 °C at 0.025 kg/s. Moreover, utilizing porous material with the tubular heater at 0.075 kg/s enhances the energy efficiency by 3.5% and 8.9% and exergy efficiency by 8.2% and 0.9% for single and double pass, respectively. Air pumping power of the tubular heater is greater than flat but its value is very small to influence the tubular net useful energy. Finally, the tubular air heater is more effective compared to flat based on energy payback time, energy cost, exergoeconomic, and enviroeconomic parameters.