Energy and exergy analysis of plain and corrugated solar air collector: effect of seasonal variation

Abstract

An experimental investigation of solar air collector performance has been carried out for mild winter (December) and hot summer (May–June). Energy and exergy analysis has been performed for single and double glazing collectors, with collector tilt angles of 30° and 45° and flow rate of air (m) ranging between 3.9–11.8 × 10⁻³ kg/s. Results reveal that the double glazed collector enhances thermal efficiency by 2–4%. At the lower value of m, the maximum values of ΔT_bed, ΔT, and ΔT_g have been observed and found to be 44°C, 35.7°C and 33.4°C for corrugated absorber plate and 30.4°C, 23.7°C and 21.4°C for plain absorber plate, respectively. The highest and lowest values of exergetic efficiency are found out to be 0.44% and 17.3%, respectively. Results also show an enhanced thermal performance at a collector’s tilt angle of 45° and is more prominent during summer than that of winter.

KEYWORDS:

• Solar air collector
• energy analysis
• exergy analysis
• tilt angle
• climatic condition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).