A CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) Based Thermal Performance of Solar Air Heater With Rib-Roughened Channels

Author(s):  
Mumtaz Hussain Qureshi ◽  
M. Shakaib

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study is conducted to determine turbulent fluid flow and temperature profiles in rectangular ribbed channels of solar air heater. The results show significant effect of Reynolds number and ribs height and pitch on turbulence and heat transfer rates. When heat flux is defined at the bottom wall, the temperature values increase rapidly near the ribs due to stagnant zones. The heat transfer coefficients are lower at these locations. When heat flux is specified at the top wall, the variation in heat transfer coefficient is relatively smooth. From the research work, the channel containing ribs of 3mm and pitch 40mm are determined suitable due to higher heat transfer rates.

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheetal Kumar Jain ◽  
Ghanshyam Das Agrawal ◽  
Rohit Misra ◽  
Prateek Verma ◽  
Sanjay Rathore ◽  
...  

Large-scale adaptation of solar air heating in industries and agro-processing will lead to clean energy processing as well as reducing the production cost for these industries. The solar air heater uses the principle of the greenhouse effect to heat air through the collected heat in the absorber. Among the various techniques employed by the researchers to augment heat transfer, the addition of artificial roughness elements/fins/corrugations on the heated surface is the promising one for heat transfer augmentation. In the present work, the effect of broken inclined ribs with rectangular cross-section on heat transfer and friction characteristics of the equilateral triangular passage duct has been analyzed using computational fluid dynamics. The effect of roughness parameters, viz., relative gap position and relative gap width, is being investigated for the Reynolds number (Re) ranging from 4000 to 18,000. The values of relative gap position (d/W) and relative gap width (g/e) are varied from 0.16 to 0.67 and 0.5 to 2, respectively, while a constant heat flux is supplied on the absorber side, other surfaces being insulated. The Nusselt number increased up to 2.16 times by using broken ribs than that of the smooth duct at d/W = 0.25 and g/e = 1.


Author(s):  
Adolfo Vazquez ◽  
Jose MA Navarro ◽  
Jesus Hinojosa ◽  
Dr. Jesús Xamán

Abstract This study reports a numerical-experimental analysis of heat transfer and airflow in a scaled room with a heated wall coupled with a double-channel vertical roof solar chimney. For the experimental part, a parametric study was performed in the thermal system, considering different values of heat flux supplied to a vertical wall of the scaled room (75 and 150 W/m2) and the absorber surface of the solar chimney (151 and 667 W/m2). Experimental temperature profiles were obtained at six different depths and heights, and experimental heat transfer coefficients were computed for both heated surfaces. The renormalization group k-e turbulence model was evaluated against experimental data using computational fluid dynamics software. With the validated model, the effect of the heated wall and solar chimney on temperature fields, flow patterns, and heat transfer convective coefficients are presented and discussed. The cases with heat flux on the heated wall of the scaled room produce the biggest air changes per hour (ACH), being 30.1, 31.2, and 23.4 ACH for cases 1 to 3 respectively, while cases with no heated wall produce fewer ACH (11.72 and 12.28 for case 4 and 5). The comparison between cases with and without heat flux on one vertical wall but the same solar chimney heat flux shows that the ACH increases between 154 % and 156% respectively.


2014 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anil Kumar Patil ◽  
J. S. Saini ◽  
Krishna Kumar

The present study examines the augmentation in heat transfer and friction in a flow through solar air heater duct with discretized broken V-rib roughness. The experimental outcomes pertaining to Reynolds number from 3000 to 17,000, relative gap position (s′/s) from 0.2 to 0.8, relative staggered rib position (p′/p) from 0.2 to 0.8 have been presented and discussed. Discretized broken V-rib roughness brought out considerable enhancement in heat transfer rates over V-rib roughness and smooth duct. Effective efficiency of discretized broken V-rib roughened solar air heater is estimated and geometrical parameters of roughness are optimized with regard to temperature rise parameter and insolation.


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