Analysis of Thermohydraulic Performance of Double Flow V-Corrugated Absorber Solar Air Heater

Abstract

In this paper the mathematical model of double flow flat plate and different angle of v-corrugated absorbers solar air heater are presented. A computer programme in C++ language is developed to estimate the temperature rise of entering air for evaluation of thermal and thermohydraulic efficiency also called “effective efficiency” by solving the governing equations numerically using relevant correlations for heat transfer coefficient for double flow v-corrugated absorber. The results obtained from the mathematical model is compared with available experimental results and found to compare well. The deviation in efficiency for flat plate and 60?v-corrugated absorber collectors is found to be in the range of  and 4.46 % respectively. The effect of fraction of mass flow rate (φ) on thermal efficiency and v-corrugated angle (θ) of absorber plate of double flow solar air heater have been analyze and found that at φ = 0.5 i.e. equal mass flow rate through both channels gives best performance. Also the comparison of the results of double flow flat plate with v-corrugated absorber of different angle show a substantial enhancement in efficiency with double flow v-configuration absorber. The 60?v-angle absorber maintains the highest efficiency values throughout the range of mass flow rates investigated. Again most efficient 60?v-corrugated absorber double flow solar air heater attains maximum value of thermohydraulic efficiency at air mass flow rate of 0.045 kg/s.