Solar Air Heater with Artificial Roughness in the Form of U-shaped Turbulators: CFD-based Performance Analysis

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
Mohit Sharma 1
Mohit Bhargva 2
Neel Kamal Batra 3
RK Behl 4
1 Mechanical Engineering Department, Maharishi Markandeshwar (Deemed to be) University, Mullana, Ambala
2 Mechanical Engineering Department, Maharishi Markandeshwar (Deemed To Be) University, Mullana, India
3 Mechanical Engineering Department, Maharishi Markandeshwar (Deemed To Be) University, Mullana
4 Department of Agriculture, Maharishi Markandeshwar (Deemed To Be) University, Mullana, India
10.22059/jser.2023.356802.1284
Abstract
In the present study, a solar air heater U shaped turbulators integrated on the absorber plate with artificial roughness has been subjected to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. For simulation, Renormalization group (RNG) k- ɛ model has been used to investigate several fluid flow properties such as flow behaviour, temperature distribution along absorber plate, and velocity distribution. By taking into account the relative roughness height (e/D) varies from 0.018 to 0.038 and a turbulence intensity of 5%, the aforementioned fluid flow properties have been investigated. Reynolds' number has a value varied in between 3800 to 18000. Also, it has been discovered that effective efficiency reaches a maximum value of around 0.7396 for relative roughness height of 0.038 at Reynolds' number of 16000. Further, results obtained from simulation suggested that there has been a considerable rise of about 22°C in temperature of air after passing through the roughened solar air heater.
Keywords
Solar air heater
Artificial roughness
U- shaped turbulators
Effective efficiency
Relative roughness height
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Journal of Solar Energy Research
Volume 8, Issue 2
Spring 2023
Pages 1437-1445