Numerical investigation on the performance of a solar air heater using inclined impinging jets on absorber plate with parallel and crossing orientation of nozzles

Abstract

This work investigates the performance enhancement of a solar air heater using inclined impinging jets on the heater surface. Two main sets of arrangements are considered for the jet nozzles including the parallel and crossing orientation of nozzles in consecutive rows. The RNG k − ɛ model is employed to simulate the turbulent flow in the channel. The influence of different geometrical and operational parameters such as jet diameter ratio (Dj/Dh), inclination angle (α,β), stream wise pitch ratio (L/Dh), span wise pitch ratio (S/Dh), Re number and velocity ratio (Vr) on the hydraulic and thermal behavior of jet solar air heater was studied. Results showed that the proposed jet solar air heater improved the Nu number and thermohydraulic performance parameter compared to the conventional unimproved solar air heater. For the studied range of parameters, up to 4.26 times higher Nu number was obtained using the jet impingement compared to the smooth duct solar air heater. Moreover, it was shown that the amount of velocity ratio (Vr) is a significant factor when comparing the parallel and crossing orientations. Additionally, results indicated that the increment of stream wise and span wise pitch led to the increment of the Nu number while having a minor effect on the friction factor. For example, the increment of L/dh from 0.3 to 0.6 leads to the reduction of f/fs of case 1 and case 4 by 6.5% and 1.09%, respectively Also, the increment of the jet diameter first raises the thermohydraulic performance parameter, and then with a further increment of diameter, the amount of thermohydraulic performance parameter decreases.