Energy
H. Farzan; M. Mahmoudi; E. Hasan Zaim
Abstract
Solar air heaters (SAHs) have an inherent drawback: the conventional mechanism is low inside these collectors’ types. Use of perforations is a simple technique to improve convection, and this investigation experimentally assesses a novel design SAH utilizing three inclined perforated absorber plates. ...
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Solar air heaters (SAHs) have an inherent drawback: the conventional mechanism is low inside these collectors’ types. Use of perforations is a simple technique to improve convection, and this investigation experimentally assesses a novel design SAH utilizing three inclined perforated absorber plates. Two scenarios are considered to assess the dynamics and efficiency of this perforated SAH, including mair = 0.012 kg/s and 0.024 kg/s. Numerous sensors monitored the dynamics of the perforated SAH and ambient factors for 12 hours in October 2022. The experimental outcomes illustrate that the perforation method remarkably enhances the thermal efficiency of the perforated SAH compared with standard smooth SAHs. The daily thermal efficiency of the perforated SAH reaches 73.30% and 82.65%, while the outlet air temperature experiences peak values of 39 oC and 42 oC at noon and keeps within 90% of its maximum value for 2 hours for the scenarios considered. Improving the convection mechanism causes the flowing air to extract the absorber’s thermal energy more effectively. Hence the SAH can produce an airstream near its maximum temperature for an extended duration. In conclusion, the perforation method is a robust, simple method to boost the thermal efficiency of SAHs.
Energy
M. Mahmoudi; H. Farzan; E. Hasan Zaim
Abstract
Asphalt materials commonly have high absorption coefficients, and their surface temperature reaches as high as 80 oC during daytime hours since their surfaces are exposed to solar radiation for long periods. Hence, asphalt pavements can easily be converted to solar air heaters (SAHs) to collect solar ...
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Asphalt materials commonly have high absorption coefficients, and their surface temperature reaches as high as 80 oC during daytime hours since their surfaces are exposed to solar radiation for long periods. Hence, asphalt pavements can easily be converted to solar air heaters (SAHs) to collect solar energy. Even though asphalt materials have low thermal conductivity, resulting in a weak convection heat exchange rate between the flowing air and asphalt surface. The current experimental study analyzes utilizing aluminum shavings as asphalt coating materials to improve SAHs’ thermal performance. To this aim, a serpentine SAH prototype was constructed, and several sensors were utilized to monitor its dynamic thermal response. Black-painted aluminum shavings were utilized as coating materials to improve the convective heat exchange rate and increase the roughness of the absorber surface. Two scenarios were considered, including the uncoated absorber plate and coated one with 0.2 kg aluminum shavings. The experiments were carried out for two air mass flow rates of 0.02 kg/s and 0.03 kg/s under field conditions. Based on the air mass flow rate, the coated absorber reaches higher temperatures, approximately 5 oC to 9 oC, than the uncoated one. The acquired results illustrate that the coated SAH has nearly 4 oC to 5 oC higher maximum exhaust air temperature; hence, the coating strategy improves the thermal efficiency by 24.75% and 44% in two air mass flow rates of 0.02 kg/s and 0.03 kg/s, respectively.