Numerical Investigation of Thermal Performance for Air Solar Collector with Multi Inlets

Abstract

Over the years, there has been rigorous modification of solar collectors for the thermal needs of the era to be efficiently served. A variety of design innovations have paved their way into the invention of novel ways of securing more solar energy as useful heat. Primarily, this study investigates the effects of multi air inlets on the transfer of heat between air flow and the absorber of flat plate collector. Computational Fluid Dynamics was employed to simulate a flat plate collector with 1, 2 and 3 inlets to evaluate the thermal performance with more than one inlet. The results showed that the 3 inlets case has the highest exit temperature followed by 2 inlets and then 1 inlet. Also higher exit air temperature can be obtained for higher heat flux and slower inlet velocity.