Performance studies of Solar Air Collector through Design of Experiment approach

Abstract

Energy has made an immutable place in the human society as a driver to socio-economic engine that control each and every activity of existing biosphere on the planet Earth. The human activities during first Industrial Revolution (early part of 18th century to mid-19th century) were limited due small scale of production. However subsequent developments that followed as I-2.0, I-3.0 and Industry-4.0 were in a totally different arena where energy demand grew at exponential rate and climatic restrictions to power generation became more stringent. The sustainability principles are today the order of the day owing to excessive environmental degradation due to alarming rate of fossil fuel usage. The carbon footprint has a marked impact on each and every process envisaged by engineering community under the concept termed as eco-friendly design. The promotion of renewable energy has been one of the promising strategies to mitigate the environmental impact due to the use of fossil fuels. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has promulgated the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that aim to bring in improved overall living standards. The work presented deals with application of Design of Experiment concept in optimizing the suitable operating conditions for solar air heater. The approach has been reported to be a novel route in product realization and its optimization that ensures better resource utilization with least environmental and social impact. The study has resulted in appropriate choice of air flow rate in solar flat plate air heater useful for crop drying.