Publication Cover
Numerical Heat Transfer, Part A: Applications
An International Journal of Computation and Methodology
Volume 76, 2019 - Issue 6
466
Views
29
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

CFD modeling and performance evaluation of multipass solar air heaters

ORCID Icon, , ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon & ORCID Icon
Pages 438-464 | Received 02 Apr 2019, Accepted 25 Jun 2019, Published online: 18 Jul 2019
 

Abstract

This article investigates the impacts of flow configurations on the thermal performance of a solar heater system. Recycled aluminum cans (RACs) have been utilized as turbulators with a double pass single duct solar air collector. The CFD software of COMSOL Multiphysics V5.3a is used to model three designs: Cocurrent (model A), countercurrent (model B), and U-shape (model C). The numerical results reveal that the U-shape design offers a greater thermal performance of 5.4% and 6.5%, respectively, compared with the cocurrent and countercurrent flow models. Furthermore, an outdoor experiment is performed based on the numerical modeling of flow configurations. The experimental setup is examined for three configurations of model C, namely, solar air heater (SAH) without RAC model C-I (plain model), SAH with in-line RAC layout (model C-II), and SAH with staggered RAC layout (model C-III). We found the double pass single duct solar air collector (model C) design is in a good agreement with the experimental data, and model C-III has a better thermal efficiency of 60.2%, compared to those of model C-II, 53.1%, and model C-I, 49.4%.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Dr M. Al-Asadi of Basra Oil Company – Iraq, Mr H.T. Abdulazeez, Dr K.W. Abid, and Mr O.I. Abd of the University of Anbar – Iraq, and Dr P. Mason of the University of Leeds, UK for useful discussions.

Notes

1 Hereafter, all units are SI unless otherwise stated.

Additional information

Funding

This study is based upon work funded by the Higher Committee for Education Development (HCED), Iraq and the Renewable Energy Research Centre, University of Anbar.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.