Experimental and Numerical Study of a New Corrugated and Packing Solar Collector

Abstract

The thermal performance of a new solar air collector with corrugated packing is studied in this work. A new innovate shape was suggested in this paper to improve the thermal performance of the solar air collector. Mathematical models are developed to investigate the thermal performance of the collector and the results are verified by experiments. Effects of the operating parameters, solar radiation intensity and inlet air velocity are studied to optimize the thermal performance of the collector. Comparisons are conducted between the experimental and numerical results and good agreement was found. The new innovate shape shows better performance than other corrugated shapes and the absorber and air gained higher temperatures. The maximum temperature of air inside duct at the exit point was 69.1 C° at solar heat flow of 725 W/m2 and inlet velocity 1.0 m/s. The new shape shows better performance than other corrugated absorber.