Energy
Abbas Dehghani Rayeni; Seyyed Abdolreza Gandjalikhan Nassab
Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 09 February 2024
Abstract
In the present paper, the effect of inclination angle on the free convection airflow inside the cavity of compound parabolic collectors and also on the performance of the thermal system is examined. In analysis, the airflow equations for computations of velocity, pressure, and temperature fields and ...
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In the present paper, the effect of inclination angle on the free convection airflow inside the cavity of compound parabolic collectors and also on the performance of the thermal system is examined. In analysis, the airflow equations for computations of velocity, pressure, and temperature fields and the conduction equation for obtaining the glass cover and absorber tube temperatures are solved by the finite element technique using the COMSOL multi-physics. For this purpose, the well-known κ-ε turbulent model is employed with the Reynolds average Navier Stokes scheme. Theoretical findings reveal that the pattern of air-free convection flow and also the temperature distribution are much affected by the collector inclination angle, such that the symmetric bi-cellular air flow at zero inclined angle changes to two non-symmetric recirculated zones at a large value of the till angle. This phenomenon causes a slight increase in thermal efficiency and leads to a more uniform air temperature distribution inside the collector. Numerical findings are validated by comparison with experimental data published in the literature.
Energy
S. A. Gandjalikhan Nassab
Abstract
This paper deals with the development of compound parabolic collectors (CPCs), utilizing a partial glass sheet adjacent to the absorber plate for the purpose of performance improvement. The collector under study has a parabolic shape, whose cavity is filled with air and the turbulent natural convection ...
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This paper deals with the development of compound parabolic collectors (CPCs), utilizing a partial glass sheet adjacent to the absorber plate for the purpose of performance improvement. The collector under study has a parabolic shape, whose cavity is filled with air and the turbulent natural convection takes place because of the air density gradient. The main goal is the reduction of heat losses by keeping away the high-temperature region near to the absorber from the main recirculaetd convection airflow by installation of a separating glass sheet. The conservations of mass, momentum and energy as the set of governing equations for the steady and turbulent free convection airflow in the CPC’s cavity and the Laplace equation for computation of temperature distributions in solid parts including the glass cover, absorber plate, and glass sheet were numerically solved by the finite element method. The COMSOL Multiphysics software was used for the present simulation. For the computation of turbulent stress and heat flux, the κ-ε turbulence model was employed. An attempt was made to investigate the installation of a fully transparent glass sheet near the absorber plate on the thermal behavior of the studied CPC. It is expected that this factor leads to lowering the heat losses from boundary surfaces, especially from the glass cover. Numerical findings showed about a 24% increase in the efficiency of studied test cases because of the installed glass sheet. Comparison between the theoretical findings with experiment shows good consistency.
Energy
S. A. Gandjalikhan Nassab
Abstract
This paper presents an original concept of using high flexible flapping vortex generator in a heat sink for airside heat transfer augmentation. The proposed thin winglet, made with an elastic sheet, is responsible for increasing the cooling rate and mixing quality performance in laminar convection airflow. ...
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This paper presents an original concept of using high flexible flapping vortex generator in a heat sink for airside heat transfer augmentation. The proposed thin winglet, made with an elastic sheet, is responsible for increasing the cooling rate and mixing quality performance in laminar convection airflow. This study focuses on the excessive bending of the flapping winglet and reducing its blockage effect and pressure drop. This novel concept is demonstrated using a numerical simulation of the flow field with a coupled Fluid-Solid-Interaction technique in transient conditions. The continuity, momentum, and energy equations for forced convection airflow are solved by the finite element method using the COMSOL Multi-physics. Numerical results reveal high amplitude for the flapping vortex generator while under a large deformation and bending. This behavior leads to flow mixing with a small blockage effect due to the deformed aerodynamic shape of the winglet. The present findings show that the high flexible winglet enhances the rejected heat by 100%, with a 33% decrease in pressure drop compared to the rigid vortex generator at the same air velocity.
M. E. Kazemian; S. A. Gandjalikhan Nassab; E. Jahanshahi Javarana
Abstract
In the present work, the statistical analyses are presented to study the economic indexes of Net Present Value (NPV) and Simple Payback Period (SPB) as response functions for the Combined Cooling, Heating and Power (CCHP) system. The CCHP performance is simulated with the aid of thermodynamic modeling, ...
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In the present work, the statistical analyses are presented to study the economic indexes of Net Present Value (NPV) and Simple Payback Period (SPB) as response functions for the Combined Cooling, Heating and Power (CCHP) system. The CCHP performance is simulated with the aid of thermodynamic modeling, and also economic equations are presented for economic simulation. An attempt is made to study the effect of some economic factors (interest ratio, fuel cost, lifetime, and electricity sell price) on the system’s responses. Based on the Design of Experiment analysis, regression models are presented to quantify the effects of these parameters on the Net Present Value and Simple Payback Periods. This novel approach is developed utilizing the response surface methodology (RSM) based on the central composite design (CCD) method. Sensitivity analysis of the economic parameters was also examined in this research. Optimal values of these parameters were obtained for the two economic indexes as response functions.
S. A. Gandjalikhan Nassab; M. Moein Addini
Abstract
In the present paper, the use of radiating gas instead of air inside the cavity of compound parabolic collectors (CPSs) is suggested and verified by numerical analysis. The collector under study has a simple cone shape with flat absorber which is filled with a participating gas such as carbon dioxide ...
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In the present paper, the use of radiating gas instead of air inside the cavity of compound parabolic collectors (CPSs) is suggested and verified by numerical analysis. The collector under study has a simple cone shape with flat absorber which is filled with a participating gas such as carbon dioxide instead of air for the purpose of increasing the thermal performance. In numerical simulation, the continuity, momentum and energy equations for the steady natural convection laminar gas flow in the CPC’s cavity and the conduction equation for glass cover and absorber plate were solved by the finite element method (FEM) using the COMSOL multi-physics. Because of the radiative term in the gas energy equation, the intensity of radiation in participating gas flow should be computed. Toward this end, the radiative transfer equation (RTE) was solved by the discrete ordinate method (DOM), considering both diffuse and collimated radiations. The approximation was employed in calculation of the diffuse part of radiation. It was observed that the gas radiation causes high temperature with more uniform distribution inside the cavity of collector. Also, numerical results reveal more than 3% increase in the rate of heat transfer from absorber surface into working fluid and hence a desired performance for the collector because of the gas radiation effect. Comparison between the present numerical results with theoretical and experimental data reported in the literature showed good consistency.
S. A. Gandjalikhan Nassab; M. Moein Addini
Abstract
A new idea is presented in this paper for improving the performance of solar air heater (SAH) designed for space heating by employing a thin flexible guide winglet. In addition to the role of winglet in pushing the convective airflow toward the heated surface, it behaves as a vortex generator (VG) due ...
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A new idea is presented in this paper for improving the performance of solar air heater (SAH) designed for space heating by employing a thin flexible guide winglet. In addition to the role of winglet in pushing the convective airflow toward the heated surface, it behaves as a vortex generator (VG) due to its vibration by fluid-solid interaction (FSI) that causes flow mixing and breaking thermal boundary layer. In flow simulation, the finite element method (FEM) is employed with considering a two-way strongly-coupled FSI approach at transient condition. Numerical solution of the governing equations, including the continuity, momentum and energy for convective flow and the equation of motion for VG are obtained by COMSOL multi-physics. The well-known model is employed for computation of turbulent stress and heat flux. The present numerical results are validated against the most recent relevant literature. To provide a clear and deep understanding of the proposed concept, extensive comparisons are made between different test cases. Results reveal considerable performance enhancement of SAH with elastic guide winglet compared with clean solar air heater (CSAH), such that 56% increase in the natural airflow rate and 9% decrease in the average absorber temperature is seen because of the flapping winglet. But, the air outlet temperature decreases about 14% due to flapping VG. This study aims to make the proposed SAH as an essential renewable thermal-solar system more efficient and attractive so that this improvement pushes the industrial society toward more sustainable infrastructure.
