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Heat Transfer Analysis on V Trough Concentrator Based Solar Air Heater with Flexible Absorber Unit

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Abstract

This paper presents the heat transfer analysis of V trough concentrator based solar air heater using a flexible absorber unit made up aliuminium foil duct. Series of experiments are conducted for the set of air mass flow rate of 0.005, 0.015 and 0.03 kg/s. The natural convection coefficient is determined and compared with a flat plate absorber. The increase Nu value in the new design heater was found 1.22 times higher than that of the flat absorbent plate for the studied parameter range. The heat transfer coefficient was augmented by 1.03 times in the flexible absorber. The maximum and the average thermal efficiency of solar air heater with flexible ducts are found as 66.48 and 54.08% for the mass flow rate of 0.03 kg/s respectively. The solar air heater with a flexible absorber provides an enhancement in the thermal efficiency of 14.66% compared to the heater with a flat absorber plate. Hence, the results show that the single-pass flexible absorber is more successful than the flat plate absorber; it significantly increases the thermal efficiency due to its unique curved inner surface structure augment high surface area.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, ACS College of Engineering, Bengaluru-560074, Karnataka, India

    B. A. Sunil Raj

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University Katra, J&K, India

    M. Eswaramoorthy

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  1. B. A. Sunil Raj
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Correspondence to B. A. Sunil Raj.

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Sunil Raj, B.A., Eswaramoorthy, M. Heat Transfer Analysis on V Trough Concentrator Based Solar Air Heater with Flexible Absorber Unit. Appl. Sol. Energy 57, 68–80 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3103/S0003701X21010072

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S0003701X21010072

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