Energy and Exergy Analysis of Double Flow Corrugated Absorber Solar Air Heaters

Abstract

This paper presents the analytical investigation of the double flow flat plate and corrugated absorber solar air heaters having different configurations of flow channels. The energy balance equations are analytically derived and solved by developing a computer program in C⁺⁺ language in order to analyze the effect of system configurations and operating parameters on energy and exergy performance. The results of different configurations of double flow corrugated absorber solar air heaters have been compared with double flow flat plate absorber solar air heater and it indicates that the corrugated absorber solar air heaters (SA-1, SA-2 and SA-3) have much higher efficiency than the flat plate solar air heater (SA-4). It is found that the maximum enhancement in energy efficiency of SA-1 solar air heater is 7.20% for the mass flow rate of 0.035 kg/s. It is also observed that the exergy efficiency become negative at higher mass flow rate (i.e. m > 0.072 kg/s) for all types of solar air heater. The results also show that increasing the solar intensity leads to achieve higher air temperature rise and efficiencies.