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Hydrothermal Performance Augmentation of a Rectangular Channel Via Novel Designs of Transverse Turbulators: An Insight into Performance Improvement of Solar Air Heaters

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Abstract

The current experimental study focuses on designing novel shapes of transverse turbulators to improve the performance of solar air heaters. Fourteen designs are derived from the original case having length × width × thickness of 30 mm × 15 mm × 0.8 mm. These turbulators are tested in a rectangular channel, and the thermal and hydraulic transport performances of the fitted channel are compared with those obtained for the vacant channel. Although the novel geometries may provide a weaker thermal characteristic through the channel, the penalty in the hydraulic characteristic is decreased significantly compared to the original shape, leading to better overall hydrothermal performances. It is found that the novel designs of transverse turbulators own lower values of heat transfer coefficient, that is ranging from 12.1% to 45.2%, whereas the pressure drop decreases within the range of 48%–91% at the studied Reynolds numbers (Re = 1643, 3286, and 4929). The results show that the Nusselt number ratio (Nufitted/Nuclear) gets reducing trend with increasing Re, while the friction factor ratio (ffitted/fclear) gets increasing trend. An appropriate tradeoff between thermal and hydraulic characteristics is established by using a specific design which presents minimum values of pressure drop and maximum values of the performance index. The highest index of 1.69 is recorded for this turbulator design at Re = 1643.

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Abbreviations

A c :

frontal flow area (m2)

A t :

total heat transfer area (m2)

c p :

specific heat (J kg−1 K−1)

D h :

hydraulic diameter (m)

H :

height of channel (m)

h :

heat transfer coefficient (W m−2 K−1)

k :

thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

L :

length of channel (m)

l :

length of turbulators (m)

m :

mass flow rate (kg s−1)

Q :

heat transfer rate (W)

P :

perimeter (m)

∆p :

pressure drop (Pa)

T :

temperature (K)

t :

thickness of turbulators (m)

u :

velocity (m s−1)

W :

width of channel (m)

w :

width of turbulators (m)

ρ :

density (kg m−3)

μ :

dynamic viscosity (Pa s)

conv :

convection

in :

inlet

m :

mean

out :

outlet

w :

wall

f :

Friction factor

Nu :

Nusselt number.

Pr :

Prandtl number

Re :

Reynolds number

OPI:

overall performance index

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. S.M. Hassani for his assistance with the experiments, and Miss A. Salimi in revising the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Shahrood Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrood, Iran

    M. Khosravi, M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi & S. Mortazavi

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  1. M. Khosravi
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  2. M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi
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  3. S. Mortazavi
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Correspondence to M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi.

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Khosravi, M., Khoshvaght-Aliabadi, M. & Mortazavi, S. Hydrothermal Performance Augmentation of a Rectangular Channel Via Novel Designs of Transverse Turbulators: An Insight into Performance Improvement of Solar Air Heaters. Exp Tech 46, 889–903 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40799-021-00523-8

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