Abstract
To investigate the solar air heater’s (SAH) effectiveness, experiments are conducted using flat plate and artificially roughened plate in terms of inclined and winglet baffles over the collector surface. This proposed system collector plate is made up of inclined and winglet ribs and serves as an artificial roughness generator. Air stream of 0.01, 0.02, and 0.03 kg/s are used in the experiment. To determine the improvement in the proposed work, these experimental results are compared with flat plate SAH. This proposed work offers a greater efficiency, useful energy gain, and lower top heat loss than a conventional SAH. At 0.03 kg/s system efficiency and useful energy gain reach their peak. Experimental day’s average efficiency of a SAH with inclined and winglet baffles is 30.8%, 52.7%, and 72.9%, respectively, for the examined cases, and it is 11%, 13.8%, and 22.2% more effective than a flat surface SAH. For the investigated air flow rates, the proposed system gains 36.2%, 24.2%, and 28.9% more energy than flat plate SAH. Substantial reductions in top losses of up to 8.48%, 7.28%, and 7.27% have been reported at the specified flow rates, respectively. Energy metrics and economic study performed show the payback time, production factor, life cycle conversion efficiency, and economic values of the proposed SAH are optimum.
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Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- IWSAH:
-
Inclined and winglet baffles solar air heater
- SAH:
-
Solar air heater
- FSAH:
-
Solar air heater with flat plate (smooth surface)
- EPT:
-
Energy payback time (years)
- EPF:
-
Energy production factor
- LCCE:
-
Life cycle conversion efficiency (%)
- Ein :
-
Total embodied energy (kWh)
- Eout :
-
Energy output (kWh/year)
- TL :
-
SAH total lifetime (years)
- Esol :
-
Total solar radiation (kWh)
- C:
-
Cost of yield/liter (INR/l)
- \(TAC\) :
-
Total annual cost in $
- TAY:
-
Total accumulated yield (W)
- FAC:
-
Fixed annual cost in $
- AMC :
-
Annual maintenance cost in $
- ASC:
-
Annual salvage cost in $
- I:
-
Interest rate in $
- ASC:
-
Annual salvage cost in $
- S :
-
Salvage value (%)
- SFF:
-
Sinking fund factor
- PCC :
-
Primary capital cost in $
- I:
-
Solar radiation [W/m2]
- m :
-
Rate of flow [kg/s]
- T:
-
Temperature [K]
- T1 :
-
Input air temperature [K]
- T2 :
-
Output air temperature [K]
- Ta :
-
Air atmospheric temperature [K]
- Ts :
-
Temperature of sky [K]
- Tg :
-
Glass surface temperature [K]
- Qin :
-
Heat energy supplied [W]
- Qout :
-
Heat energy gain [W]
- Qt :
-
Heat loss from top [W]
- h:
-
Heat transfer coefficient [W/(m2 K)]
- hr :
-
Radiation heat transfer coefficient [W/(m2K)]
- hw :
-
Top convection heat transfer coefficient [W/(m2K)]
- A:
-
Area of absorber [m2]
- Cp :
-
Specific heat of air [J/kg K]
- V:
-
Average air velocity [m/s]
- Vw :
-
Wind velocity [m/s]
- η :
-
SAH efficiency [%]
- ρ:
-
Density [kg/m3]
- F:
-
Friction factor
- Re:
-
Reynolds number
- Nu:
-
Nusselt number
- σ:
-
Stefan Boltzmann constant [W/(m2 K)]
- G:
-
Total incident solar radiation [W/m2]
- ε:
-
Emissivity of glass
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KS constructed the experimental setup, JVR contributed in energy metrics, economic study, and VR conducted the experiments and evaluated the system performance and prepared the manuscript.
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Rajendran, V., Singaraj, K. & Rajarathinam, J. Environmental, economic, and performance assessment of solar air heater with inclined and winglet baffle. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 14337–14352 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23213-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23213-3