Thermo-hydraulic performance of a solar air heater with staggered C-shape finned absorber plate

Abstract

An experimental investigation has been carried out to study the thermo-hydraulic performance of a solar air heater with staggered multiple C-shape perforated and non-perforated finned absorber plate. The experiments were conducted with a relevant range of flow parameters as Reynolds number from 3000 to 27000 and geometric parameters such as relative pitch to gap ratio from 3.4 to 3.8, relative height ratio 0.3 to 0.7 and relative perforated ratio 1.5 to 3, with focus on their effects on the maximum heat transfer enhancement. The higher thermal performance was achieved at relative pitch to gap ratio, 3.8, relative height ratio, 0.6 and relative perforated ratio, 3. The thermal performance and friction factor for C- shape finned absorber plate without perforated hole for relative pitch to gap ratio, 3.8 and relative height ratio, 0.6 were 2.61 and 5.93 times more than the smooth plate absorber plate, respectively. The perforated fin with the same relative ratios gives the thermal performance and friction factor by 2.67 and 5.34 times higher than the smooth absorber plate solar air heater, respectively. The correlations were developed to match the experimental Nu and f with the deviations of ±9.63% and ±9.44% for non-perforated fin and ±9.53% and ±8.73%for perforated fin respectively.