Modeling the dependence of the geometric position of air ducts in a solar air heater with a concave air absorber on the efficiency of the solar air heater

Increasing the thermal efficiency of solar air heaters is critical to the efficient use of energy. This article discusses the issues of research and parametric optimization of convective heat transfer under conditions of turbulent flow in the working chamber of a solar air heater with the absorption of sunlight by the absorber and the air flow from the combustion air ducts. Heat transfer processes and pressure losses are also analyzed and the optimal geometry and location of the air pipeline is determined. In addition, depending on the Reynolds numerical value, it was found that the recommended thermohydraulic coefficient of the concave piping has a higher operating efficiency compared to the solar air heaters given in the research paper. In addition, special attention is paid to the optimal placement of concave ducts; the optimal distances between the ducts are selected. The issues of increasing its heat-transfer capacity are solved by shading the placement of concave ducts. The result is an increase in the performance of the device by increasing the heat transfer coefficient of the collector of a solar air heater with a concave air absorber. For this purpose, the motion of concave tubular absorbers with different geometric arrangements was studied. Also in this article, the heat balance equation was developed to determine the optimal geometric arrangement of air ducts and the reliability of the results was confirmed. In accordance with the simulation carried out, the placement of a concave tube in the form of a checkerboard on the surface of the absorber is calculated perpendicular to the air flow, parallel to the air flow and in the form of a flat air tube.

1. . Kalogirou SA. Solar thermal collectors and applications. Prog Energy Combust Sci2004;30:231–95. doi: 10.1016/j.pecs.2004.02.001.

2. . Parsa H., Saffar-Avval M., Hajmohammadi M. R. 3D simulation and parametric optimization of a solar air heater with a novel staggered cuboid baffles //International Journal of Mechanical Sciences. – 2021. – Т. 205. – С. 106607.

3. . Alkilani MM, Sopian K, Mat S, Alghoul MA. Output air temperature prediction in a solar air heater integrated with phase change material. Eur J Sci Res 2009;27:334–41

4. . Karwa R, Chauhan K. Performance evaluation of solar air heaters having vdown discrete rib roughness on the absorber plate. Energy 2010;35:398–409. doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2009.10.007

5. . Chamoli S, Chauhan R, Thakur NS, Saini JS. A review of the performance of double pass solar air heater. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2012;16:481–92. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2011.08.012

6. . Forner-Escrig J, Mondragón R, Hernández L, Palma R. Non-linear finite element modelling of light-toheat energy conversion applied to solar nanofluids. Int J Mech Sci 2020;188:105952. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2020.105952

7. . Al-Rashed AAAA, Oztop HF, Kolsi L, Boudjemline A, Almeshaal MA, Ali ME, et al. CFD study of heat and mass transfer and entropy generation in a 3D solar distiller heated by an internal column. Int J Mech Sci 2019;152:280–8. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2018.12.056.

8. . Kabeel AE, Hamed MH, Omara ZM, Kandeal AW. Solar air heaters: design configurations, improvement methods and applications – a detailed review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2017;70:1189–206. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2016.12.021.

9. . Ahmed, N., Mohyud-Din, S. T. and Hassan, S.M. (2016), "Flow and heat transfer of nanofluid in an asymmetric channel with expanding and contracting walls suspended by carbon nanotubes: A numerical investigation", Aerospace Science and Technology, Vol. 48, pp. 53–60.

10. . Alsabery, A. I., Chamkha, A. J., Hussain, S. H., Saleh, H. and Hashim, I. (2015), "Heatline visualization of natural convection in a trapezoidal cavity partly filled with nanofluid porous layer and partly with nonNewtonian fluid layer", Advanced Powder Technology, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 1230–1244.

11. . Yan SR, Golzar A, Sharifpur M, Meyer JP, Liu DH, Afrand M. Effect of U-shaped absorber tube on thermal-hydraulic performance and efficiency of twofluid parabolic solar collector containing two-phase hybrid non-Newtonian nanofluids. Int J Mech Sci 2020;185:105832. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2020.105832.

12. . Alam T, Kim MH. A critical review on artificial roughness provided in rectangular solar air heater duct. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2017;69:387–400. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.192.

13. . Hinojosa, J. F., Estrada, C. A., Cabanillas, R. E. and Alvarez, G. (2005), "Numerical study of transient and steady-state natural convection and surface thermal radiation in a horizontal square open cavity", Numerical Heat Transfer A, Vol. 48, pp. 179–196.

14. . Khan, U., Ahmed, N. and Mohyud-Din, S. T. (2016a), "Thermo-diffusion, diffusion-thermo and chemical reaction effects on MHD flow of viscous fluid in divergent and convergent channels", Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 141, pp. 17-27.

15. . Moghadasi H, Saffari H. Experimental study of nucleate pool boiling heat transfer improvement utilizing micro/nanoparticles porous coating on copper surfaces. Int J Mech Sci 2021;196:106270. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2021.106270

16. . Sun X, Li S, Lin GG, Zhang JZ. Effects of flow-induced vibration on forced convection heat transfer from two tandem circular cylinders in laminar flow. Int J Mech Sci 2021;195:106238. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2020.106238.

17. . Manjunath MS, Karanth KV, Sharma NY. Numerical investigation on heat transfer enhancement of solar air heater using sinusoidal corrugations on absorber plate. Int J Mech Sci 2018;138–139:219–28. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2018.01.037.

18. . Erfanian Nakhchi M, Rahmati MT. Turbulent flows inside pipes equipped with novel perforated Vshaped rectangular winglet turbulators: numerical simulations. J Energy Resour Technol Trans ASME 2020;142. doi: 10.1115/1.4047319

19. . Nakhchi ME, Hatami M, Rahmati M. Experimental investigation of heat transfer enhancement of a heat exchanger tube equipped with double-cut twisted tapes. Appl Therm Eng 2020;180:115863. doi: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2020.115863.

20. . Nakhchi ME, Hatami M, Rahmati M. Experimental investigation of performance improvement of double-pipe heat exchangers with novel perforated elliptic turbulators. Int J Therm Sci 2021;168:107057. doi: 10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2021.107057.

21. . Bisht VS, Patil AK, Gupta A. Review and performance evaluation of roughened solar air heaters. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2018;81:954–77. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2017.08.036.

22. . G. Tanda, Heat transfer in rectangular channels with transverse and V-shapedbroken ribs, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 47 (2) (2004) 229–243.

23. . D.H. Lee, D.-H. Rhee, K.M. Kim, H.H. Cho, H.-K. Moon, Detailed measurement ofheat/mass transfer with continuous and multiple V-shaped ribs in rectangular channel, Energy 34 (2009) 1770–1778.

24. . Kurtulmuş N, Sahin B. Experimental investigation of pulsating flow structures and heat transfer characteristics in sinusoidal channels. Int J Mech Sci 2020;167:105268. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2019.105268.

25. . Sureandhar G, Srinivasan G, Muthukumar P, Senthilmurugan S. Performance analysis of arc rib fin embedded in a solar air heater. Therm Sci Eng Prog 2021;23:100891. doi: 10.1016/j.tsep.2021.100891.

26. . Dong Z, Liu P, Xiao H, Liu Z, Liu W. A study on heat transfer enhancement for solar air heaters with ripple surface. Renew Energy 2021;172:477–87. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.03.042

27. . Deo NS, Chander S, Saini JS. Performance analysis of solar air heater duct roughened with multigap V-down ribs combined with staggered ribs. Renew Energy 2016;91:484–500. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2016.01.067.

28. . Gill RS, Hans VS, Saini JS, Singh S. Investigation on performance enhancement due to staggered piece in a broken arc rib roughened solar air heater duct. Renew Energy 2017;104:148–62. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2016.12.002.

29. . Sriromreun P, Thianpong C, Promvonge P. Experimental and numerical study on heat transfer enhancement in a channel with Z-shaped baffles. Int Commun Heat Mass Transf 2012;39:945–52. doi: 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2012.05.016.

30. . Shirvan KM, Mamourian M, Mirzakhanlari S, Rahimi AB, Ellahi R. Numerical study of surface radiation and combined natural convection heat transfer in a solar cavity receiver. Int J Numer Methods Heat Fluid Flow 2017;27:2385–99. doi: 10.1108/HFF-10-2016-0419.

31. . Thakur DS, Khan MK, Pathak M. Solar air heater with hyperbolic ribs: 3D simulation with experimental validation. Renew Energy 2017;113:357–68. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2017.05.096.

32. . Kumar R, Kumar A, Goel V. A parametric analysis of rectangular rib roughened triangular duct solar air heater using computational fluid dynamics. Sol Energy 2017;157:1095–107. doi: 10.1016/j.solener.2017.08.071.

33. . Kumar R, Sethi M, Chauhan R, Kumar A. Experimental study of enhancement of heat transfer and pressure drop in a solar air channel with discretized broken V-pattern baffle. Renew Energy 2017;101:856–72. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2016.09.033.

34. . Kumar R, Chauhan R, Sethi M, Kumar A. Experimental study and correlation development for Nusselt number and friction factor for discretized broken V-pattern baffle solar air channel. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 2017;81:56–75. doi: 10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2016.10.002

35. . Abdukarimov B. A., Kuchkarov A. A. Research of the Hydraulic Resistance Coefficient of Sunny Air Heaters with Bent Pipes During Turbulent Air Flow //Journal of Siberian Federal University. Engineering & Technologies. – 2022. – Т. 15. – №. 1. – С. 14-23.

36. . B.A. Abdukarimov., Sh.R.O'tbosarov., A.M. Abdurazakov. (2021). Investigation of the use of new solar air heaters for drying agricultural products. In E3S Web of Conferences (Vol. 264, p. 01031). EDP Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202126401031

37. . Malhotra A, Garg HP, Patil A. Heat loss calculation of flat plate solar collectors. J Therm Eng 1981;2:59–62.

38. . Yadav AS, Bhagoria JL. A CFD based thermohydraulic performance analysis of an artificially roughened solar air heater having equilateral triangular sectioned rib roughness on the absorber plate. Int J Heat Mass Transf 2014;70:1016–39. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2013.11.074.

39. . Malikov Z.M, Madaliev M.E. (2020) Numerical Simulation of Two-Phase Flow in a Centrifugal Separator. Fluid Dynamics. 55(8). pp. 1012–1028.

40. . Son, E., & Murodil, M. (2020). Numerical calculation of an air centrifugal separator based on the SARC turbulence model. Journal of Applied and Computational Mechanics.

41. . Spalart P.R., Shur M.L. “On the sensitization of simple turbulence models to rotation and curvature”, Aerospace Science and Technology, 1997, v. 1, No. 5, – P. 297-302.

42. . Patankar S.V. Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow. Taylor&Francis. ISBN 978-0-89116-522-4, 1980.

43. . Malikov Z.M., Madaliev M. E. Numerical simulation of flow in a two-dimensional flat diffuser based on two fluid turbulence models // Computer Research and Modeling, vol. 13(6), pp. 1115–1126 (2021).