Investigation of the Thermal Performances of Flat, Finned, and v-Corrugated Plate Solar Air Heaters

Abstract

In this research, the thermal performances of flat, finned, and v-corrugated plate solar air heaters were investigated experimentally. A solar air heater with single glass cover, single pass was designed and tested under prevailing weather conditions of Tanta city (30°43′ N, 31° E), Egypt. The solar air heater was designed to be easy to replace the absorber plate from one to another one. Comparisons between the temperature difference of air across the heater and thermal efficiencies of the flat, finned, and v-corrugated plate solar air heaters were presented. The effect of change in the mass flow rate of air on the outlet air temperature and the thermal efficiency of the heater were also studied when the mass flow rates were 0.062, 0.028, and 0.009 kg/s. The experimental results showed that the maximum value of outlet temperature of the v-corrugated plate solar air heater was 5 and 3.5 °C more than that of flat and finned plates when the mass flow rate was 0.062 kg/s, respectively. And, it increased to be 8 and 5.5 C when the mass flow rate was 0.009 kg/s. It is also indicated that the thermal efficiency of the v-corrugated solar air heater is 8–14.5% and 6–10.5% higher than that of the flat and finned plate heaters, respectively, when the mass flow rate was 0.062 kg/s under the considered configurations and operating conditions. The experimental results also indicated that the convective heat transfer coefficient of the v-corrugated heater reached up to 1.64 and 1.36 times than that of the flat and finned heaters, respectively, when the flow rate was 0.062 kg/s.