Numerical and experimental investigation of heat transfer of longitudinal fin with varying pitch length in flat plate solar air heater

Abstract

Solar energy is a promising clean energy alternative, and consequently, the novel and innovative applications of solar energy in day-to-day life are expected to rise in the near future. The reason for limited applications of solar air heaters is their low thermal efficiency. This is due to inadequate heat transfer from the absorber plate to the air (working fluid). It has done various experiments with different pitch lengths and recorded the efficiencies corresponding to various pitch lengths. Numerical and Experimental Investigation of heat transfer of longitudinal fin with varying number of pitch length (1–5) in a flat plate solar air heater to improve the rate of heat transmission, thin and lengthy fins have been put underneath the absorber plate. The fin was intended to be square. The investigation included two different fluid masses at rates of 0.0252 and 0.10 kg/s with two distinct Reynolds numbers, 627.46 and 26585.55. The goal of the present study is to get an understanding of the effects of variations in air flow rate on the outlet temperature, heat transfer through the solar collector's thickness, and overall thermal efficiency. It has done a CFD simulation on Ansys to verify the experimental results with the simulation results.