https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0465-1412
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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the position of the solar collector absorber and stagnant air relative to the airflow path on the thermodynamic properties of traversing air and the overall thermal performance of the collector. A numerical model was developed and validated using five different absorber design positions. Numerical results are validated using experimental data obtained from Epinal (France). The model was subsequently used to parametrically study the influence of these absorber positions on the density, temperature, velocity variations of the airflow through the collector and the thermal efficiency of each case scenario. The study showed the importance of stagnant air in solar collector thermal performance. Also, it showed that when one absorber is used, it is better to locate the absorber on the top of the airflow path than below the airflow path. Sandwiching the airflow path between double absorbers with the upper absorbers having stagnant air between it and the plexiglass cover and the down absorber having stagnant air between it and the bottom of the collector can produce a thermal efficiency of 31% which is 2% higher than the closest case and 13% higher than the worst-case design.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Merlin Simo-Tagne
Merlin Simo-Tagne obtained his PhD from the University of Yaoundé 1 (Cameroon) in 2011. He won three times the fellowship proposed by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) located in Japan. For many years, he worked as Invited Senior Researcher at the University of Lorraine (France), and all papers he published are in the Heat Mass Transfer domain applied to the Drying, Building, Pyrolysis and Carbonization using Fortran and Python tools. He has published 75 publications in international journals.
Macmanus Chinenye Ndukwu
Macmanus Chinenye Ndukwu is a full professor and researcher in the Department of Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Nigeria. His research interest focused on technologies and process parameters for developing efficient processing techniques and equipment for value addition to biomaterial. Currently, he developed models, numerical simulations of coupled heat and mass transfer, energy and exergy analysis and thermo-physical process parameters evaluation in agricultural production and processing nexus. He works in solar and convective drying of agricultural products, solar energy application to irrigation process, agricultural biomass valorization to bio-energy, evaporative cooling preservation of agricultural products and development of crop storage and processing machines and equipments.
Naoual Bekkioui
Naoual Bekkioui is a lecturer authorized to direct research at Mohammed V University in Rabat (Morocco) and member of the Laboratory of Condensed Matter and Interdisciplinary Sciences. Her area of research include modeling and simulation of renewable energy, solar drying, wood drying.
Ablain Tagne Tagne
Ablain Tagne Tagne is a teacher with a lot of papers in the energetic domain. Actually, he works as a doctorate researcher. Her research is applied on pyrolysis, carbonization and drying of biomass materials using numerical tools.
Lyes Bennamoun
Lyes Bennamoun is a Manager of the Climate Change Initiatives within the Government of New Brunswick, Canada. He has a PhD degree in HVAC and a Master degree in Physics. His main fields of research are: drying, mathematical modeling, conversion of biomass, waste to energy. He is the authors of more than 100 published research papers, chapter books.
Ibiba Taiwo Horsfall
Ibiba Taiwo Horsfall holds a master’s degree in Soil and Water Conservation Engineering at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria. His research interests include numerical modeling and simulations, heat and mass transfer analysis, and pyrolysis. He has authored a few research papers in this area.
Bilal Lamrani
Bilal Lamrani is an assistant professor of applied thermal engineering at Mohammed V University in Rabat (Morocco). His research focuses on the modeling and simulation of thermal energy conversion and storage systems, as well as heat and mass transfer. Lamrani has authored more than 50 research papers indexed in Scopus.
Aboubakar Compaoré
Aboubakar Compaore received his PhD degree in Energetic Engineering from University Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in 2016. Since 2017, he is a university lecturer in physics at Lédéa Bernard Ouedraogo University (formerly called Université de Ouahigouya), Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso. His research interests include applied physics, energetic engineering, food engineering, modelling and simulation, solar energy and thermal engineering.
Yann Rogaume
Yann Rogaume is Full Professor at the Université de Lorraine a head of the research laboratory LERMaB. He works mainly on wood and waste for energy but also in the heat and mass transfer such as drying or pyrolysis. The development is both on experimental and modeling ways.
Romain Rémond
Romain Rémond is an associate professor at Lorraine University. His research focuses on the modeling and characterization of heat and mass transfer in porous media, such as wood and other bio-based materials. Applications include processes like wood drying, heat treatment, as well as building physics.