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A comparative experimental performance evaluation of solar air collector having absorber plate with convex oval-trench dimple

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Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine how convex oval-trench dimples placed staggered on a solar air collector's absorber improved vortex heat transfer. At air mass flow rates of 0.013, 0.027, and 0.036 kg/s, convex oval-trench dimple absorbers with relative roughness heights, e/D=0.2 and e/D=0.4, as well as a flat plate absorber, were evaluated for back-pass and front-pass applications. The oval-trench dimpled absorber plates in the back-pass and front-pass achieved the maximum energy efficiency of 37.5% and 50.6%, respectively, with e/D=0.4 and 0.036 kg/s. The increase in the number of Nu in e/D=0.4 was 26% and 31% more than that of the flat plate for the examined parameter ranges of back-pass and front-pass, respectively. (e/D=0.4)/(flat plate) and (e/D=0.4)/(e/D=0.2) increased by an average of 28% and 24% in back-pass for (Nuotd /Nu0)/(fotd /f0), respectively. In front-pass, (e/D=0.4)/(flat plate) and (e/D=0.4)/(e/D=0.2) improved by 35% and 25%, respectively. The collector with a relative roughness height of 0.4 has the optimal structure for this examination of collectors with an oval-trench dimple. The results indicated that collectors with convex oval-trench dimples outperform flat plates in terms of surface area expansion and turbulence generation, which boosts thermal efficiency substantially. In addition, when the experiment results were compared, the front-pass implementation outperformed the back-pass approach. As a result, thermal systems may benefit from utilizing the convex oval-trench dimple.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [S.Ş.], upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

A c :

collector surface area, m2

A p :

absorber plate surface area, m2

c p :

specific heat capacity of air, kJ/kg °C

D:

dimple print diameter

D h :

hydraulic diameter, m

Ex :

exergy, J

Ex dest :

rate of irreversibility, J

\(f\) :

friction factor

f otd :

average friction factor for oval-trench dimpled SAC

f 0 :

average friction factor for flat plate SAC

f otd /f 0 :

friction factor increment ratio

\(\hslash\) :

specific enthalpy, J/kg

\(h\) :

heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 °C

I :

solar irradiance, W/m2

\(\dot{m}\) :

mass flow rate of air, kg/s

Nu :

Nusselt number

Nuotd :

Nusselt number for dimpled SAC

Nu0 :

Nusselt number for flat plate SAC

Nuotd /Nu0 :

heat transfer enhancement

Nuotd /Nu0 /(fotd f0 ):

thermo-hydraulic performance factor

\(\Delta p\) :

pressure drop, Pa

Qu :

useful heat rate, W

Q s :

incident energy in the collector area, W

R :

function uncertainty

Re :

Reynolds number

\({\dot{S}}_{gen}\) :

entropy generation rate, kW/Ksspecific entropy, kJ/kg K

s :

specific entropy, kJ/kg K

T:

temperature, °C

\({T}_{p}\) :

temperature of the absorber plate, °C

v :

velocity of air, m/s

\(\dot{V}\) :

volumetric flow rate of air, m3/s

x :

independent variables

W R :

total uncertainty

w1,w2,wn:

uncertainties in the independent variables

δ/D:

Relative roughness height (δ/D)

η:

efficiency, %

ρ :

density of air, kg/m3

µ :

dynamic viscosity of air, Pa s

ατ:

absorptance-transmittance

δ:

dimple depth

a :

air

aa :

ambient air

avg :

average

c :

collector

ex :

exergy

i :

inlet

o:

outlet

p:

plate

s:

sky

0:

flat plate

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Akhisar Vocational School, Department of Machine, Manisa Celal Bayar University, 45200, Manisa, Türkiye

    Mesut Abuşka

  2. Vocational School of Technical Sciences, Electrical and Energy, Hitit University, 19169, Çorum, Türkiye

    Seyfi Şevik

  3. Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hitit University, Çorum, Türkiye

    Özgür Özdilli

Authors
  1. Mesut Abuşka
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  2. Seyfi Şevik
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  3. Özgür Özdilli
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Contributions

Mesut Abuşka: Writing–Reviewing and Editing, Validation, Investigation, Conceptualization, Data curation, Visualization. Seyfi Şevik: Writing–Original Draft, Reviewing and Editing, Methodology, Investigation, Formal Analysis, Conceptualization, Validation, Data curation, Supervision, Visualization Preparation, Resources. Özgür Özdilli: Writing–Reviewing, Software, Resources, Investigation, Validation, Conceptualization, Data curation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seyfi Şevik.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Highlights

• Solar air collectors with convex oval-trench dimples are evaluated in terms of energy and exergy.

• Comparative performance of back-pass and front-pass on solar air collector.

• The oval channel dimple solar air collector reached a maximum instantaneous thermal efficiency of 56.5%.

• This study proposes the use of a collector with a relative roughness height of 0.4.

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Abuşka, M., Şevik, S. & Özdilli, Ö. A comparative experimental performance evaluation of solar air collector having absorber plate with convex oval-trench dimple. Heat Mass Transfer 59, 1871–1894 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-023-03377-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-023-03377-5

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