Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser

A thermodynamic review of solar air heaters

Abhishek Saxena a,n, Varun b, A.A. El-Sebaii c
a
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, M.I.T., Moradabad 244001, India
b
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, N.I.T., Hamirpur 177005, India
c
Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Solar air heaters (SAHs) form the foremost component of solar energy utilization system. These air
Received 7 May 2014 heaters absorb the irradiance and convert it into thermal energy at the absorbing surface and then
Received in revised form transfer this energy to a fluid flowing through the collector. SAHs are inexpensive and most used
1 November 2014
collection devices because of their inherent simplicity. SAHs are found in several solar energy
Accepted 8 November 2014
applications, especially for space heating, timber seasoning and agriculture drying. It has been observed
by studying the previous literature that all the elements of a solar air heater such as; an absorber tray,
Keywords: the ducts, glazing, insulation, extended surfaces, as well as the tilt angle, have a significant effect on the
Air heating thermal performance of the system. This review article focus on the developments that has followed
Methods round the globe in various aspects of solar air heating systems since 1877 up to now, with a glimpse of
Models
some novel patents of SAHs. The various methods that are used to improve the thermal performance of
Performance
SAHs such as; optimizing the dimensions of the air heater construction elements, use of extended
Hybrid systems
Solar energy
surfaces with different shapes and dimensions, use of sensible or latent storage media, use of
concentrators to augment the available solar radiation, integrating photovoltaic elements with the
heaters, etc, are also reported. Besides this, some benefits by using the SAHs has been discussed.
& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 864
1.1. History of solar air heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865
1.2. Types of solar air heater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865
1.2.1. Air heaters with non-porous absorber plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865
1.2.2. Air heaters with porous absorber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865
1.3. Patents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865
2. Construction of a solar air heater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866
2.1. Ducts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866
2.2. Glazing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868
2.3. Blower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869
2.4. Absorber tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869
2.5. Insulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870
3. Various designs of solar air heaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870
4. Various models of solar air heaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875
4.1. Solar air heaters with thermal storages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875
4.2. Solar air heaters with concentrators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 876
4.3. Hybrid solar air heaters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877

Abbreviations: PCM, phase change material; SAH, solar air heater; SAHS, solar air heating system; SAHs, solar air heaters; TES, thermal energy storage; PBS, packed bed
storage; FPC, flat plat collector; TIM, transparent insulating material; FP, flat plate; FPSC, flat plate solar collector; SAC, solar air collector; PTC, parabolic trough concentrator;
CPC, compound parabolic concentrator; PV, photovoltaic; PV/T, photovoltaic thermal; CFD, computational fluid dynamics; SHS, solar heating systems; HTF, heat transfer fluid
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 912450391; fax: þ915912452207.
E-mail addresses: culturebeat94@yahoo.com (A. Saxena), varun7go@rediffmail.com (Varun), ahmedelsebaii@yahoo.com (A.A. El-Sebaii).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.11.059
1364-0321/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
864 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890

Symbols ε emissivity
φ chamfered angle
h heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K) ff friction factor
ΔP pressure drop (N/m2) S solar irradiance absorb by plate (W)
T temperature (1C) β is the tilt angle of the collector (1)
η efficiency (%)
_
m mass flow rate (kg/s) Subscript
C specific heat [kJ/kg K]
α angle of attack a, amb ambient
Re Reynolds number therm thermal
P/e relative roughness pitch sys system
e/D relative roughness height elect electrical
UL overall heat loss coefficient opt optical
G, I solar radiation (W/m2) over overall
W/H width to height ratio sc solar cell
m_L leakage air mass flow rate (kg/s) gen generation
v wind velocity (m/s) dest destroyed
Nu Nusselt number f fluid
FR heat removal factor g glass cover
Δ difference out outlet
δ absorber plate thickness (m) in inlet
A Area (m2) p absorber plate
k thermal conductivity (W/m1C) w wind
s entropy (kJ/kgK) U useful heat
ψ specific exergy (kJ/kg) t top loss
ħ enthalpy (kJ/kg) b bottom loss
ηII exergetic efficiency over overall
Ė energy rate (kW) e environment
Ėx exergy rate (kW) s sun temperature
W_ work rate (kW) ex exergy
s_ entropy generation rate (kW/kg K) eff effective
τ transimissivity col collector
α0 absorbitivity

5. Thermal performance of solar air heaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 880

5.1. SAH with no air leakage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881
5.2. SAH with air leaking in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881
5.3. SAH with air leaking out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881
5.4. Exergy analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 882
5.5. Optimum tilt angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 882
5.6. f-chart analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883
5.7. Software modeling and simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883
6. Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 884
7. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 886

1. Introduction
It is well known that solar energy is an infinite resource on the
earth. The sun produces a vast amount of energy which is collected
through a system and then converted into heat and electricity.
Humans have harnessed the energy of the sun for millions of
years. In the 5th century BC, the Greeks took a fair advantage of
this energy through designing their buildings to capture the sun's
heat maximum in cold climatic conditions. Later on, the Romans
has been put their efforts to improve the architecture of buildings
by covering southward windows with a transparent glass to avoid
the escape of solar heat captured in the sunshine hours. Solar
energy has a lot of methods or techniques for utilizing. Commonly,
it is used to provide heat, light or to produce electricity [1]. The
solar energy systems can be classified in two types i.e., passive and
active energy systems. Passive solar energy means the collection of
the heat and light; passive type design (for an instance) uses solar
energy to build up a variety of buildings more energy efficient by
reducing the need for day lighting and minimizing the amount of
energy needed for heating and cooling. On the other hand, active
solar energy refers to a storage of this energy and converting it for
other uses, either as PV electricity or thermal energy [2].
This free fuel from the sun is used for many purposes such
as; cooking, water heating, distillation, space heating and
cooling, agriculture and industrial drying, refrigeration and air
conditioning, timber seasoning, power generation, etc. In this
article, an attempt has been carried out to analyze various types
of SAHs.
 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890 865

Table 1
Classification of SAHs [17].

Solar air heaters

A B C D E F G

Collector cover glass Absorber material Absorber shape Absorber flow pattern Flow shapes Hybrid collectors Applications
A bare plate SAH Metallic with slats Over Single pass Water Drying
Single cover SAH Non-metallic with porous Under Parallel pas Air Preheating
Double cover SAH Matrix with fins On both of sides Double pass Water– air Space heating
Triple cover SAH Triple pass Cooling

1.1. History of solar air heating
Solar heating systems have been in use for many years. Solar heat
stored in iron was used in 1877 as reported by Daniels and Duffie [3].
The air blowing over the heated iron was then used to heat a home.
The first accredited SAH was designed and produced by E. Morse (an
American) in 1881. The design deals with a simple wall hung wooden
framed cabinet for a blackened metallic sheet covered with a
transparent glass. It works purely on convection, the hot air would
be emitted through a solar absorber made of steel within the cabinet
of the system. The system got a little attention, although variations
were developed but were not known exactly [3,4]. Several solar
heated homes have been constructed and operated successfully over
the past years. Between, 1946–1949, two residences in Massachusetts
have explored a new level of solar air heating by using chemical
compounds that absorbs and release heat as needed by changing its
state from a solid to a liquid one. At present, this technology is referred
as phase change materials (PCMs) and has numereous applications in
industries, worldwide. Since that time, three more houses were built
at MIT and research was continued up to 1978. The components used
to be simple and reliable in operation and relatively easy to install by
the home owner. In the past few years, many manufacturers of these
components apparently recognized the trend to installtoward do-it-
self solar heating system by its own, especially for building or space
heating [5–7].
Refs. [8–12] show that, Cabot (1938) marked the beginning of
modern research in solar heating at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT). The SAHS was designed to carry approximately
two-thirds of the total winter heating loads in Boston. Telkes and
Baymond (1949) defined a solar home at Dover (MIT) which utilized
vertical southward SAHs and thermal energy storage (TES) in the
heat of fusion of NaSH3. The main objective to design this system was
to carry the total heating loads (having theoretical capacity in its
storage system to carry the desred heating load) atleast for five days.
Later on, Bliss (1955) has been developed and determined the
performance of a fully solar heated house in the Arizona desert,
through-flow of the air heater and a TES unit. Lof (1959) has designed
some solar air heating systems (SAHS) overlapped transparent glass-
plate type solar collectors and a pebble bed for TES and using these
concepts to built a dwelling near Denver. The year round perfor-
mance of this SAHS was investigated thorougly and reported by Lof
et al., in 1963, 1964, 1976, and 1978. Close et al. (1968) has described
another SAHS used for limited heating of a laboratory cum building
in Australia, which was operated for several years. This system used a
56-m2 Vee-grove SAH and a packed bed storage (PBS) unit. Since
1970, different types of experimental systems for air heating are
developed and their performance has been measured and reported.
After that, Weiss (2003) had discussed the design and optimization
of many different European ‘solar combisystem’.
1.2. Types of solar air heater
SAH collects solar radiant energy and transforms it into heat
through a fluid flowing inside the system. The concept indicates that
the fluid flows through a solar collector and heat from the sun
naturally increases the temperature of fluid (the air) up to a certain
level. In other words, it can be stated that the outside cold air is
heated through the system and delivered to the required space. The
collector has an outer layer of glazing exposing to the sun. Preheated
air supplied to the buildings had developed a good interest during the
few past decades. The advantage of this technology is that it is
inexpensive and simple. It is exclusively effective for summer houses
as it can work without a particular attention. In this way, the indoor
environment of buildings is maintained at a good level in cold
climates. Basically, all SAHs can be classified under two categories
[13–15], while a detailed classification has also been shown in Table 1.
1. Air heaters with non-porous absorber plate and
2. Air heaters with porous absorber plate.
1.2.1. Air heaters with non-porous absorber plate
In this type, the air stream does not flow through the absorber
tray. The air may flow above or beneath the absorber tray. The air
that blows above the absorber surface increasd the convection loss
from the cover plate and therefore it is avoided, if the ‘Ti’ and size
at the collector are large. Selective coating can be applied to
improve collector efficiency. These can be classified as [15,16];
1. Conventional air heater,
2. Air heaters with fins,
3. Vee-corrugated air heater,
4. Double exposure heaters,
5. Double flow solar air heater and
6. Two pass solar air heater.
1.2.2. Air heaters with porous absorber
A major disadvantage of the nonporous absorber is the necessity
of capturing all incoming solar radiation over the projected area
through a thin layer over the absorber’s surface. If some selective
coatings are used then radiative losses from the absorber can be
minimized and unless the collection efficiency remains poor. The
ΔP along the duct formed between the absorber plate and the rear
insulation may also be prohibitive, especially in the case of added
fins to increase the heat transfer area and turbulence rate. The
porous absorber SAHs can be classified as given below [14–17];
1. Packed bed solar air heater,
2. Overlapped glass plate air heater,
3. Matrix air heater,
4. Honeycomb porous bed air heater and
5. All plastic solar air heaters.
1.3. Patents
There are lot of patents available in the area of solar energy world
wide. A few novel designs of SAHs along with their unique feature
are presented in a tabular form (Table 2), in this section. The patent's
866 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890

Table 2
Some good patents of SAHs [18–36].

Inventor Quality feature or novelty of the invention

Lof [18] The air may be heated to a preset ‘To’ up to 27 1C with/without recirculation of the air in the whole or in a part of a comparatively high ‘η’ of energy
conversion. The major parts of the invention were; a series of overlapping sheets of window glasses with Al foil from the bottom, a plenum chamber,
mineral wool insulation, and the inlet and exhaust ducts.
Telkes [19] A novel SAH was invented to be used round the year by using front and back sides. The system was vertically disposed and composed of a variety of
parallel, straight disposed slats like a venetian blind. The slats were positioned at an acute angle facing the sun and the air was circulated through the
heater between the slats and supplied to the space through the ducts.
George [20] A SAH comprises in array a plurality of structurally rigid, air-canalizing modular ducts, connecting in parallel flow with a header. The size of the each duct
was creating an array for ease of assembly with stock materials as well for arranging them on a roof, optionally assisted by mechanical aids.
Lyon et al. [21] A SAC had a plurality of parallel, spaced-apart, substantially coextensive translucent sheets and a convoluted air passage. The air passed over a blackened
absorber. The re-circulated air in the system was above the Tamb, lose heat to the front cover by conduction, and this loss reduces the ƞover.
Vincent [22] A dome shape SAH with a transparent outer and inner cover was invented. This invention provided an almost constant Acol to the sun because of its round
shape. The dome structure collects solar energy at low angles of solar beams early in the morning and late afternoon. The conversion was almost the high
in winters and in the summer, also.
Ryan et al. [23] A forced convection SAH was invented. The system includes; a solar panel, a corrugated absorber, a cap disposed over the other end of the base and
absorber, a translucent cover over the absorber, an output manifold coupled to the other end cap of the solar panel, a TES unit coupled to the output
manifold, and a pump coupling the TES unit, for providing hot air.
McCllogh [24] A SAH include a housing having a transparent front wall and an inlet and outlet for establishing a flow path for the air to a heated and porous radiation
absorbent collector plate positioned across flow path and arranged to accept the incident solar radiation through the front wall.
Secamiglio et al. The prompt discovery concerns a SAH, which was readily installed and had a generally wedge-shaped casing adapted to be mounted externally on
[25] building with the tapered end of the casing being top and in operative link with a window opening or other opening in the wall of building.
Brandnburg Jr., The device was invented for a dwelling house with some objectives such as; to provide a sun tracking SAHS, to provide a SAH in which the solar collector
[26] includes a heating coil, and to provide a SAH using hot air and a roof sun tracking system that can efficiently convert the solar energy into useful heat
energy. The flexible duct assembly was the quality feature of the system.
Komano et al. [27] The SAHS was capable of controlling the operation of the blower that receives electric power from the solar cells such that, the temperature of heat-
collected air was not too high in the summer and can be adjusted within the desired range in winters.
Doherty [28] The system deals with two unique features (i.e., isolated sections and partitions) to increase the ‘To’. The present design solved the prior art problem of
incoming cold air mixing with the heated air within the heater, and provided the unsuspected benefit of increased ηsys.
Fairstein [29] A roof-mounted SAHS included; an absorber with one air manifold integrated structurally with the solar absorber, was invented. The improved airspeed in
combination with integrated air entrance and exit tubes improves the displacement of solar heated air and temperature de-stratification in the buildings
and resulted in increased heat conversion η and the air displacement.
McClendon [30] The SAHS comprised with a solar heating module with an enclosure of panels bounding a plenum. The collector was configured, to transfer heat, to air
communicated from the ambient environment to the heating chamber through the passages. The air-moving device was adapted to apply a negative
pressure in the heating chamber effective for drawing the air from the ambient environment.
Vachon [31] A solar heat collector comprises a glazing exposed to the ambient, can be simultaneously utilized for solar heating and heat recovery. The glazing was
spaced from a back surface to define a plenum therewith. Pluralities of perforations were defined by the glazing for allowing outside air into the plenum
and maintain the glazing at the Tamb, thereby providing for higher ηtherm.
Arndt [32] A SAH involved one transparent, and a translucent front panel comprised one first flow passage; said first flow passages substantially elongated and
extend along the surface of the front panel. The present invention was comprised for driving and inverting the air flow through the SAH; whereby heating
and ventilation of a room or a building connected by a SAH.
MacKay et al. [33] A modular SAHS was shown the method of heating of the air with solar energy. The system was configured in different sizes for different applications and
mounted in different angled planes, to face in the general direction of the sun’s path. Agricultural drying, greenhouse heating, and heating processes are
industrial applications for the configuration of the modules in larger sizes.
Tarakcioglu [34] An active type textile based SAH with a black single layered homogenous non-woven textile surface was invented. The movement of the air in the
collector and the transportation to the space to be heated or drying medium was provided through forced convection. The objective of the invention was
to increase the ‘h’ from the black absorber plate to the air to be heated.
Ryan [35] The system was included a plenum and a solar absorber that defines a boundary of the plenum (permeable to the air) and presented with a mechanism for
flowing manner of the air. The system was invented; for the use of a support surface, to use a mechanism for flowing air including a plenum, a solar
absorber, a reflector, and a method of fabricating a SAHS.
Hao [36] A utility model relates to a SAH perform on solar energy with high heat absorption η. The system includes a frame, a glass sheet, a wave form heating plate,
a shaft, a support, and two ducts (communicated with the roof and the lower portion of a greenhouse).

reports have noticeably shown that the discoverers not only focused
on the performance of a SAH, but also made efforts on the various
foundations of a SAH. From the available reports of inventions/
patents, it can be originated that there are many comprehensive
patents that focused on the whole system's performance. With the
assistance of available patent's report, the uniqueness of some
selective designs of SAHs (selection of patents have been made on
the basis of quality design of a SAH), with their thermodynamic
behavior and their limitations are discussed in Table 2 [18–36].
2. Construction of a solar air heater
There are various types of SAHs and the key components (as
discussed in Section 1.3) of these systems are; a blackened absorber
(normally made from a thin Aluminium sheet), a thin transparent glass
(glazing), the ducts, an air blower or fans and insulation material. In
brief, a transparent glass is used to allow solar radiation inside the SAH
and an Al or G.I. (sometimes, tin is also used) blackened thin sheet is
used to store the solar energy in a good amount. An insulation
material is used to reduce the conduction losses (from the sides and
bottom of the system). An air blower, pump or fan is used for forced
convection, while the ducts are used for the air supply and exhaust.
Fig. 1 shows the major components of a SAH.
2.1. Ducts
In SAHs, the ducts are used to supply the fresh air and exhaust
of warm/hot air by the means of natural and forced convection.
It is notable that the air velocity is a majorly considerable factor in
efficiency effecting parameters of a SAH. Many experiments have
been carried out in various designs of the ducts (in SAHs) to
investigate the efficiency improvement and to notice the enhance-
ment in the heat transfer rate. ASHRAE fundamentals describe that
rectangular and circular shaped ducts are most suitable for heat
transfer of heating and cooling applications for human comforts.
Beside this, flat oval ducts, fibrous glass ducts, concentric annular
ducts, and other flexible ducts are also used for the same purpose
[37]. A glimpse has been shown some commonly used ducts in
SAHs in Fig. 2.
 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890 867

Fig. 1. Major components of solar air heater.

Fig. 2. (a) General geometry of the V-down rib having a gap, (b) Geometry and coordinate system for an elliptic duct, (c) Schematic diagram of a rectangular duct with
inclination angle, width, and height, (d) Square duct with internal axial corrugation, (e) Cross sections of the circular tube and the triangular duct.

Apart that, it has also been noticed that the artificial surface
roughness provided on the ducts or on the absorber plates of SAHs
has a favourable effect on the heat transfer. Because the artificial
geometry creates turbulence in laminar sub-layer due to flow
separation and reattachment between the two repeated ribs
therefore the ‘h’ increases between the absorber plate and the
flowing fluid in a SAH. Recirculation flow further enhances the
convective heat transfer. The ΔP could also be minimized to keep
the height of the roughness element small or using perforated ribs.
The use of turbulators is an effective way to improve the
performance of SAHs. The effect of turbulators has been observed
(in the forms of, ribs, baffles, delta winglets, obstacles, vortex
generator, rings and perforated blocks/baffles) for heat transfer
and friction characteristics in the air ducts by Yongsiri et al. [38]
and Alam et al. [39]. It was found that perforation in ribs/baffles/
blocks and combination of these, leads to heat transfer augmenta-
tion and the better thermo-hydraulic performance [38,39]. There
are some important parameters that characterize the arrangement
and profile of the roughness (ribs height and pitches etc.). Besides
this, dimensionless parameters (like, relative roughness pitch,
relative roughness height, the angle of attack, relative gap position,
chamfered angle, perforation area ratio, etc.) are found to have a
868 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890

Table 3
Different design of the ducts.

Authors Geometry e/D p/e W/H α Φ

Gupta et al. [40] Transverse wire roughness 0.018–0.052 10 6.8–11.5 – –

Momin et al. [41] V-shaped ribs 0.02–0.034 10 10.15 30–90o –
Bhagoria et al. [42] Transverse wedge shaped rib 0.015–0.033 12.12 5 – 15o
Jaurker et al. [43] Rib-grooved roughness 0.018-0.036 4.5-10 10 – –
Saini and Saini [44] Arc-shape parallel wire 0.021-0.042 10 12 90o –
Aharwal et al. [45] Square split-rib with a gap 0.0377 10 5.84 60o –
Saini and Verma [46] Dimple-shape roughness 0.018–0.037 8–12 10 – –
Varun et al. [47] Inclined and transverse ribs 0.03 3–8 10 – –
Kumar and Saini [48] Arc shaped roughness 0.029–0.042 10 12 30–60o –
Bopche et al [49] U-shaped turbulators type 0.0186 -0.039 6.6–57 6 90o 10o
Aharwal et al. [50] Discrete square ribs 0.018–0.037 4–10 5.83 30–90o –
Kumar et al. [51] Discrete W-shaped ribs 0.0168-0.033 10 1–8 30–75o –
Hans et al. [52] Multiple V-ribs 0.019- 0.043 6–12 1–10 30–75o –
Singh et al. [53,55,57] Discrete V-down ribs 0.043 10 12 60o –
Lanjewar et al. [54] W-shaped ribs 0.018-0.0337 10 8 30–75o –
Bhushan et al. [56] Protrusions roughness type 0.03 – 10 – –
Kumar et al. [58] Multiple V-shaped ribs 0.022-0.043 6–12 1–10. 30–75o –
Yadav et al. [59] Circular protrusions arc 0.015–0.03 12–24 11 45–75o –
Alam et al. [60] Transverse square shaped 0.042 10.71 5 58o –
Yadav and Bhagoria [61] Equilateral triangular rib 0.042 7.14 5 58o –
Yadav and Bhagoria [62] V-shaped perforated ribs 0.4–1.0 4–12 10 60o –
Alam et al. [63] Delta-winglet type vortex 0.4 – 1–10 30–60o –
Skullong and Promvonge [64] Multiple arc shape ribs 0.018–0.045 4–16 11 30–75o –
Skullong et al. [65] Wavy-ribs, groove turbulator 1.0 – 10 45o –

Table 4
Effects of different parameters on thermal performance of a SAH.

Parameters Effects

e/D Nu and ff both increases with increase of e/D

p/e Nu and ff both increase with relative roughness pitch for constant p/e
Α The heat transfer rate is maximum at 60o
Φ Nu and ff both increases with Stanton number at increasing the chamfer angle
Inclination of ribs The heat transfer rate increases

significant effect on the thermal performance, while evaluating by
having different values in the different designs of SAHs and shown
in Tables 3 and 4. A good improvement has been found by putting
the different values of dimensionless parameters, especially in the
heat transfer rate and the exhaust temperature of SAHs [40–65].
2.2. Glazing
A glazing (a transparent glass) plays a vital role to allow the
incident solar radiation for entering the device and substantially
restricting infrared energy losses through re-radiation. Reasonable
collection of solar radiant energy at moderate temperatures is one
of the typical challenges, which is facing by investigators in the
field of solar energy utilization. Practically, all absorption collectors
proposed to accomplish this function, also depend on the utiliza-
tion of glazing. A glazing should be used for a high transmissivity
to the solar spectrum and extensively opaque to long (or infrared)
wavelength solar radiation [66]. One or more sheets of transparent
glass are used to transfer the energy from the sun into the solar
collector or absorber inside the solar system. The transparent
glazing is purposely used to reduce convection losses from the
absorber to the environment through the restraint of the stagnant
fluid layer in between the absorber and glazing. Glazing also
reduces radiation losses from the solar collector (because of a
transparent glass) to the short wave radiation received from the
sun, but it is almost opaque to long-wave thermal radiation
emitted by the absorber [67]. Glazing materials include glass,
plastics, acrylics, fiberglass and other transparent materials. Gen-
erally, different glazing materials have very limited applications,
but the use of a transparent glass has been proven as a most
promising candidate. Different types of glasses permit the passive
solar designer to fine-tune a structure to meet the requisite [68].
A single pane transparent glass is common of glazing types and
has a high solar transmission. Structures with single glazing are
typically experienced for a large temperature swings, drafts, high
condensation and provide a nominal safeguard from the outdoor
environment. Hence, a double pane unit is the most common glass
product used at present. This can be defined simply as; two panes
manufactured as an individual unit. On ther side, isolated glass
includes a spacer block between the panes and completly sealed
with a silicon material. The spacer develops a dead air planetary
between the panes. This air space tends to increase the resistance
for heat transfer. While, a bulky air space can raise the convective
heat transfer within the system and results in a heat loss. A rule of
thumb for the air space in galzing is between 1 and 2 cm [69,70].
To observe the effect of glazing on solar flat plate collectors
(FPCs), Michalopoulos and Massouros [71] have been carried out a
few investigations (analytically and experimentally) by adding or
subtracting the number of glazing in a solar FPC. Properly designed
FPCs compete favorably with other types of collectors such as
evacuated tubular collectors. A single-glazing, dust-free, FPC cover,
combined with the appropriate underlying material that prevents
convection, constitutes the optimum design. According to the
application or desired heat gain the glass sheets used for glazing
may be single, double, triple or quadruple. These transparent glass
sheets have been found the best suitable for solar thermal
applications such as greenhouse screen, space heating, distillation,
solar food dryers/kilns, and skylights in buildings, especially in
rural areas. While, in the case of SAHS the single pane glazing is
commonly used [12].
 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890 869

2.3. Blower
Heat transfer to fluids flowing in the pipes and ducts is a subject
of great practical importance. Fluid motion is dominant to convec-
tion heat transfer and concerned with two basic flow classifications;
(i) forced convection – in which fluid motion is generated mechani-
cally by using a fan, blower, pump, etc. and (ii) natural convection –
in which fluid motion is generated by gravitational fields. Beisdies
this, in natural convection, density variation is mainly due to
temperature differences [72]. The forced convection not only
improves the heat transfer rate, but also provides a good flow rate
of the hot air for space heating in comparison of natural convection.
To get this improved heat transfer rate along a good velocity of the
exhaust in SAH, there is a need of a blower/fan or pump which
performs on electricity and makes the solar system ‘hybrid’. The
first step in the design of a fan/blower/pump system is the
calculation of the quantity of the air to be handled and the amount
of heat, which must be imparted to it. While, in some cases the fan
system is designed to take care of a portion of the heat losses only,
the balance being supplied by direct radiation [73]. ASHRAE has
been outlined the selection standards (consideration factors) for the
fans/blowers/pumps for the space heating systems in detail for a
required heating rate or demand [74].
2.4. Absorber tray
An absorber tray/plate is the main component of a SAH and has
a momentous effect on thermal performance of a solar thermal
system. Many aspects of materials (mainly absorptivity of solar
heat) and their properties have a significant affect on the overall
performance and the cost of a solar energy device. The major
concern will be with different materials as applied to solar
collectors, with a reflection to material properties as they affect
the overall performance. Basic studies for absorptivity reasons
have suggested numerous mechanisms for a selection of energy-
absorbing surfaces. These mechanisms, include: (i) variant optical
constants index (refractive and absorptive) with wavelength (λ)
for a particular surface material; (ii) dimensions of the surface
roughness of large comparative to an extent value of ‘λ’, but
slightly depend on long-wave re-radiation; (iii) coatings of small
particles of measurements larger than ‘λ’ but lesser than long-
wave re-radiation; (iv) thin anti-reflection caoting for increasing
absorptivity; and (v) and thick semiconductor films [75–77].
Although, selective surfaces has a significant effect on the
performance of SAHs, but SAHs carrying a blackened absorber plate
are still exclusively used because of difficulty of producing selective
surfaces by the inexperienced. The fact is that the surfaces plates or
trays (absorbers) of a solar energy system must have the principle
quality to absorb the solar heat in a maximum amount. The absorber
must be high in terms of sensible heat storage (SHS). The perfor-
mance of solar energy absorber can be characterized through its solar
absorptance and thermal emittance. This performance can be
enhanced by using various selective surfaces i.e., Cu, Ni, SiO, SiO2,
Si3N4, TiO2, Ta2O5, Al2O3, ZrO2, Nd2O3, MgO, MgF2, ZnS and SrF2 are
used in solar receivers [78]. Selective paint can be characterized as
obtaining its selectivity through deposition of an optically thin film of
an absorbing particulate onto a highly thermally reflective substrate.
Investigations of particulate have been ranged from PbS, Si, Ge, CdSe,
CdTe, etc. [79]. Some metal oxides and a sulphide layer coated onto
various metals such as Ni–Zn sulphide complex (Ni–ZnS) known as
nickel black, and Cr/Cr2O3, CuO, Fe3O4, Ni–ZnS alloy, WO2, CO3O4 etc.
[80], as well as good absorbing materials (Al, Cu, Au, Mo, Ni, Pt, Ag,
stainless steel-304, Ta, Sn, V, and Ti) [81] in solar thermal systems.
Apart this, some researchers have investigated the importance of
solar absorbers to find out the significant effects on the perfor-
mance of solar heaters. Whillier [82] has carried out a few
experiments; (i) to prove that the resistance to heat transfer
between the air being heated and the solar absorbing plate is a
major limiting factor in the performance of a SAH, (ii) to demon-
strate a rational heat-transfer analysis of SAHs of conventional
design, (iii) to compare the performance of glass and Tedlar covered
SAHs, and (iv) to show that for heating the air from the Tamb and for
an economically optimum construction of SAH by employing black
paint. Later on, Bevillt and Brandt [83] have observed the solar
absorber as a main element of a solar heater. Solar energy was
collected in an absorber consisting of 96 parallel fins of Al made,
which were spaced 0.635 cm apart, 61 cm in length and 6.35 cm in
height. The absorber was installed in a single glazed box so that the
air can be pumped fast the Al fins for heating. Matrawy [84] had
carried out analytical study to improve the ηSAC by using metal
vanes attaching them in between the absorber and bottom plate.
A method was described for selecting an optimum number of metal
vanes and a suitable depth of the duct for the flowing air. Apart this,
a comparison study has been made between the performance of a
collector absorber and a finned plate absorber. The metal vanes
along the collector increased the ‘η’ about 5% in comparision of
finned absorber and around 13% in comparision of absorber without
extended surfaces. Benli [85] had proposed a remedy for low
thermo-physical properties of the air, which was used as different
absorber surface of SAH. An experimental investigation was carried
out on the absorber surface of the solar collector which was
designed to provide better heat transfer surfaces. In this study, five
different types of SAHs, viz; corrugated trapeze, reverse corrugated,
reverse trapeze, and a base FPC has been experimental tested for

Table 5
Physical properties of some commonly used solar absorbers [86].

Absorber Solar absorption a (s) Thermal emittance e (600 K) Ratio (a/e) Stagnation Conversion efficiency

ebTs Ts (K) Without concentration 3 Times of concentration

TiNx–Ag 0.88 0.065 14 0.073 650 0.31 0.69

ZrNx–Ag 0.86 0.039 22 0.041 740 0.52 0.75
ZrC–Ag 0.81 0.075 11 0.080 620 0.15 0.59
ZrC6–SS 0.87 0.123 7 0.116 580 0 0.51
ZrCxNy–Ag 0.88 0.052 17 0.055 690 0.42 0.73
ZrOxNy–Ag 0.88 0.084 10 0.088 620 0.14 0.63
Silicon–Ag 0.76 0.05 15 0.050 680 0.32 0.61
Pt–Al2O3–Pt 0.92 0.126 7 0.122 580 0 0.55
Black nickel 0.94 0.09 10 0.095 620 0.15 0.68
Black Cr 0.96 0.15 6 0.136 570 0 0.52
Den. tunsten 0.96 0.26 4 0.26 490 0 0.20
Black paint 0.96 0.98 1 0.98 374 0 0
870 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890
Insulating materials
Inorganic materials Organic materials
Foam glass Expanded polystyrene,
extruded polystyrene,
polyurethane foam
Glass wool or stone
wool
Cork, melamine
foam, phenol foam
Sheep wool, cotton
wool, coconut fibers,
cellulose
Fig. 3. Classification of the most used insulating materials [89].
Fig. 4. A simple design solar dryer for agriculture crop drying.
thermal performance and exergy analysis. Thermal efficiencies were
determined for the different types of solar collectors for a compar-
ison. The results showed that the ‘h’ and ‘ΔP’ increase with the
shape of absorptive surface. Some of the commonly used solar
absorbers have been shown in Table 5.
2.5. Insulation
Thermal insulation is the simplest way to prevent heat losses
and to achieve economy in energy usage especially in solar thermal
systems. Thermal insulation serves many significant functions such
as, to conserve energy, to reduce heat loss or heat gain, to maintain
an efficient operation of the system (or chemical reaction), to assist
in sustaining a product at a constant temperature, to prevent
condensation, to create a comfortable environmental, to protect
personnel and for TES. Conventional insulation materials are often
opaque and suitably classified into, fibrous, cellular, granular and
reflecting types materials. Some commonly used thermal insulation
materials are as; glass, fiber, alumina silicate, mineral wool and
calcium silicate, among which the glass-wool has been noticed to
be used as an insulator in SAHS, commonly [99–102,183,184]. There
are some definite losses from a thermal energy system, insulated
with opaque types materials [87,88]. The classification of the mostly
used insulating materials [89] has been shown in Fig. 3.
In general, a solar energy component needs two basic elements:
thermal absorber and a transparent cover that reduces heat losses
Combined materials New materials
Siliconated calcium, Transparent
gypsum foam, wood materials, dynamic
wool materials
of the absorber to the environment. The use of transparent insula-
tion material (TIM) is also a good approach, in which honeycomb
(lexan, glass and acrylic mostly) structures are filled in the space
between absorber and cover in order to restrict heat transport by
convection (the air) [90]. Rommel and Wagner [91] have been
investigated two different solar collectors by using TIM and found a
significant effect on the thermal performance of the systems. The
thermal and optical properties of a polycarbonate honeycomb
material were discussed with respect to the design of improved
FPCs and integrated solar TES collectors with TIM. Beside this,
Bahadori and Vuthaluru [92] had discussed the importance of
thickness of insulation in thermal applications and a developed
simple method to estimate the thickness of thermal insulation
which was required to arrive at a desirable heat flow or the ‘Tp’ for
flat plate surfaces and for the ducts and pipes. The proposed
correlation calculates the thermal thickness for flat surfaces up to
200 mm and predicts the thermal thickness of the ducts and pipes
with outside diameters up to 2400 mm. Overall, glass-wool has
been found a commonly used insulator in SAHS.
3. Various designs of solar air heaters
The air type solar collectors are commonly used for agriculture
drying [93,94,99] (Fig. 4), timber seasoning [95] and space heating
applications [96–98]. Their basic advantages of these systems are low
sensitivity to leakage as well as no need for an additional heat
exchanger for drying and space heating applications. However,
because of low heat capacity of the air and low convection ‘h’
between the absorber and the air, a large heat transfer area and
higher flow rates are needed. The air has been used as the working
fluid in solar heating systems since World War II. Although demon-
strated in fewer building than liquid systems, the air systems have
several advantages that can lead to their use in smaller installations
in single and multifamily residences. In addition, the air systems are
well suited to crop drying and air preheating in certain process.
There have been numerous types of solar air heating collectors
designed, previously. Among them, the focusing type employing
lenses or mirrors to concentrate the solar energy into a small, high-
temperature area has been built in a variety of forms. Considerably,
with a greater interest from the standpoint of economic practic-
ability, there are several types of FPC in which a fluid is heated by
contact with surfaces which in turn heated by solar radiation
passing through one or more flat glass surfaces. SAH involves solar
heat collector, sloping, FP type, in which ordinary single-strength
window glass is employed both as a heat exchange surface and as
an ‘insulating medium’, to reduce the escape of heat to the atmo-
sphere. The purpose of the collector unit is the heating of the air by
passing it between overlapped glass plates and delivering heated air
 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890
to a dwelling, to a solar dryer, or to a heat-storage unit [99].
Basically, a SAH is a heat exchanger that intercepts the incident
solar radiation and converts it into heat and then finally transfers
this heat to a working fluid for end use system/device. The working
fluids may be water, organic fluids or the air. The air collectors are
typically used for the heating or preheating of the air in air
conditioning and drying applications. The design and construction
methods and materials for SAHs have industrialized with a low
progress in comparision of liquid-based collectors. The ηSAC is lower
due to low thermal capacity of the air and lower value of ‘h’
between collector-to-air. The main advantages of these type of
collectors that there is no freezing or pressure problems, reasonable
construction or operating cost and no heat exchanger required for
direct heating of a space [98–100].
An experimental study was carried out on the performance
characteristics of four different SAHS. The studied parameters were,
plate efficiency factor, heat-removal efficiency factor, Ut, and effec-
tive absorption coefficient for average cold climatic conditions for
similar designs of SAHs at Roorkee (India). A comparative experi-
mental study was carried out on the winter performance of four
types of SAHs at CBRI (Central Building Research Institute), India.
These were designed with the help of easily available materials and
the feasibility of fabrication [101]. Klein et al. [102] had described a
simulation model, which was capable of predicting the long-term
thermal performance of SAHS. The informative report gained from
many simulations for developing a general design procedure for
SHSs. The result was a development of a simple graphical method by
which any of architect or a heating engineer can design an
economical liquid-based SAHS for residences. Whillier [103] had
carried out performance analysis of a conventional SAH concerned
primarily with black-painted collectors for some different objectives
such as; heat-transfer analysis, to predict useful heat collection, to
demonstrate significant improvement by use of the screens, and to
compare the performance of glass and Tedlar covered SAHs. Khanna
[104] had been investigated a SHS integrated with a heat exchanger
and storage coupled to two water heaters. The heat transferred from
water to air in the heat exchanger and the temperature of exhaust
was estimated by considering various parameters. The data obtained
was helpful to design a shell-and-tube type heat exchanger which
can be used for drying a particular material through the system.
Bevill and Brandt [105] had presented two different designs of a
SAHS and tested to determine the ηtherm. In first design, the absorber
consist of 96 parallel specular Al fins that were placed in a glazed
box. With the specular fins, efficiency around 80% were obtained,
when the air was heated from 12 to 20 1C. While, the second design
deals with diffused fins. The efficiencies of both the collectors were
compared. Second design was observed to have around 15% lower
efficiency in comparison of first design. A second cover plate was
recommended to be installed in future designs of collectors to
decrease heat losses. Suri and Saini [106] had presented the
performance of single and double-exposure types of SAHs. The
results were discussed in the form of the air temperature distribu-
tion, which passes through the SAH. A particular set of generalized
performance prediction curves was obtained for non-dimensional
exhaust temperature as a function of two non-dimensional para-
meters, for both designs. Satcunanathan and Deonarine [107] had
made some efforts to reduce the losses from the glass cover of
simple two-glass cover SAH. It was found that the outer glass cover
temperatures as under those conditions were significantly lower and
much nearer to atmospheric temperatures compared to those when
the collector was operated in the conventional single-pass manner.
The smaller separations between the two glass panes yielded better
results with the two-pass mode of operation.
Macedo and Altemani [108] had tested four basic types of natural
convection SAHs in a wide range of input solar radiation. The flow
rate, temperature variation and system’s efficiency were discussed as
871
measured variables. This system was tested under steady state
conditions and the results were found to be considerd in the design
of equipment for solar drying, space heating and other heat purposes.
Chau et al. [109] had designed and tested an approximated 104 m2
inflated plastic SAH with black plastic suspended screens as extended
surfaces. The comparisions have been made against a SAH without
screens. A good improvement has been observed in the collector
performance with addition of one or more suspended screen to the
system. Collector with two suspended plastic screens (as extended
surface) was found much better over a collector with only one
suspended screen and highly efficient than a collector without a
screen. Teddy and Gupta [110] had presented a graphical method for
individual parts to evaluate the thermal performance of a SAHS.
The design data for SAH of known characteristics was deter-
mined iteratively in both cases; with and without the air recycles.
A methodology was proposed by which mass flow rate (m) _ can
suitably be modified to specify the same performance curves for the
case of SAHs of similar configuration but of different physical
dimensions. Garg et al. [111] had been investigated the effect of the
increased heat transfer area on a conventional SAH. This has been
carried out by incorporating some rectangular fins or by Vee-
corrugated absorber of a conventional type SAH. The ‘h’ was assumed
for a constant value in the performance analysis. Performance curves
were found for different collector configurations, and the ‘η’ was
noticed for a higher value by increasing the number of fins inside the
duct. While, in the case of Vee-corrugated surface, the improvement
in the ‘η’ was observed quite less promising.
Singh and Bansal [112] had fabricated a matrix solar collector
from the broken glass pieces being supposed to be a thermally
efficient and low economic system for heating the air. A mathema-
tical model was developed to study the performance of SAHS.
Numerical calculations were used to study the effect of physical
parameters such as; the use of single or double glazing and the
insulation at the bottom side. Ranjan et al. [113] had developed a
heat transfer model to predict the transient resonse of a suspended
FPSC with a constant flow rate above the absorber. A reflecting sheet
with an air gap of 5 cm between the collector and bottom insulation
was used for heat loss reduction. The effect on the performance of
SAH of the parameters via, spacing between cover and absorber
plate, heat capacity of the air and absorber, flow rate of fluid and
collector length were studied, carefully. Kenna [114] had studied the
performance of open loop SHSs by using a single non-dimensional
equation. It was shown in the article that the long term solar fraction
is depended basicaly on three different non-dimensional groups at
any location. Comparisons were made between the solar fraction
calculated through a computer model, which were predicted by a
design method. It was concluded that the developed correlation can
be used as a reliable design tool, which allow a simple selection of
optimum system designs. Sorour and Mottaleb [115] had studied the
influences of few design parameters on the performances of
channel-type FP-SAHs. The effects of spacing between cover-to-
absorber plate, spacing between absorber-to-back plate and the
optimal number of glass covers were studied for a detail. The
increase in the ‘h’ between the absorber plate and the fluid flown
with the decrease of inter-plate spacing was more significant than
the corresponding increase with the ‘m’._ Again, Sorour and Mottaleb
[116] had carried out investigation of a corrugated, channel-type
SAH and its operating parameters. These design parameters (i.e.,
rectangular, triangular and circular cross sections) were investigated
for various flow rates, numbers of glazing and the Tin. It was
concluded that a corrugated absorber plate increases the ηtherm
and double-glazing gives best performances for all the flow arrange-
ments and corrugated absorber plates.
Garg et al. [117] had studied the dimensional effect of the
rectangular shape ducts for the air flow inside SAHs for laminar,
transitional and turbulent flows. A mathematical model was
872 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890
developed for the solar collector performance and required pump-
ing power to maintain the flow rate. The effective energy was
determined for different case studies, and the depth of the duct
was optimized with respect to effective energy. An optimum duct
depth was obtained for different values of the m _ for collecting
maximum energy at minimum pumping cost. It was concluded
that the depth of the solar collector can be optimized by main-
taining a balance between the ‘η’ and ‘To’ on one side and pumping
power on the other side, with respect to the effective energy.
Bansal and Singh [118] had carried out a complete analysis for a
cylindrical matrix SAH. The theoretical derivation was deduced
with the help of a set of assumptions and closed form expressions
have been obtained for the collector parameters such as heat
removal factor and the ‘h’. Garg et al. [119] had been developed a
theory for a four-pass SAH and studied system performance for
different passes (i.e., one pass to four pass). The effect of number of
glazings on one to multi-pass was comprehensively investigated. It
was shown that the two or three pass SAH performs quite well for
low flow rates and large plate lengths. While, for small plate
lengths and high flow rates, the addition of glass covers did not
affect the performance of two or three pass SAHs. Goel et al. [120]
had been designed, fabricated and tested a flat plate and a Vee-
corrugated SAH having a single absorber. The rear plate in these
collectors was replaced by rigid synthetic foam. The efficiency of
the Vee-corrugated absorber was higher around 5% in comparision
of commercially corrugated absorber plate. Correlations for pre-
dicting forced convection heat transfer coefficient ‘h’ for these
SAHs were obtained.
Loveday [121] had derived expressions for efficiency and loss
factors of a coverless SAC. In the geometry treated, the air flow was
beneath a flat absorber with a steady state heat transfer. The
expressions were validated by outdoor measurements from a full-
scale tile roof used as a collector and by indoor measurements from
tile and metal roof sections. It was shown that system’s perfor-
mance as the collector may be described by a ‘fin and tube’ model.
Results were found to be useful for design and may be used in
computation of thermal performance of the solar-assisted buildings.
Choudhary et al. [122] had been presented a detailed theoretical
parametric analysis of a one-pass corrugated bare-plate SAH.
Obtained results were found useful for designer to calculate
performance and optimize the design and also to improve efficiency
without increasing the cost. A good agreement of theory with
experimental observations confirmed that the optimization proce-
dure discussed which can be used to obtain fairly accurate optimum
performance and optimum design parameters of the SAHs for any
amount of the air flowing through the heater channel. Garg et al.
[123] had investigated a fin-type SAH by both experimentally and
theoretically. The fins were arranged on the upper plate of a
conventional duct-type single glazed SAH. A transient model has
been developed to study the performance of a finned SAH and by
manipulating the values of the ‘h’, and theoretical data was fitted to
the experimental results. The agreement between theoretical pre-
dictions and experimental data was obtained for a good satisfaction.
The resulting values of the ‘h’ were used to predict the performance
of the SAH, when the fins were placed in the lower metallic plate or
in both the upper and lower plates.
Bhargava et al. [124] had modified a conventional SAH in which
two metal plates and one glazing were used, the air was forced into
the lower channel, while the stagnant air between the plate and
glazing prevents heat loss. The ‘η’ of the upper channel was
observed to be quite high, whereas the decrease in the lower
channel ‘η’ was not that much. It was shown that, if the upper
channel can be kept completely open, the ‘η’ loss in the lower
channel due to the natural flow in the upper channel was o5%.
Choudhary and Garg [125] had carried out a parametric analysis on
corrugated and FP-SAHs on five different configurations. The
analysis shows the effect of flow rates on the air temperature
increment, the ηsys and the ΔP experienced by the flowing air for
the different air channel lengths and different specific values of the
_ The design analysis and curves were intended to enable a
‘m’.
designer to construct economical and efficient SAHs with techni-
cally logical air passage dimensions. Choudhary and Garg [126] had
given a concept to achieve a higher heat transfer from the absorber
plate to the flowing air stream with an intention to increase the
amount of the collected energy and to improve the ‘η’ of an air-
based solar collector (a unique jet impingement). The gain in the air
temperature increment and performance ‘η’ of the jet-concept SAH
over that of the parallel plate SAH with the duct depth 10 cm and
length 2 m was 15.5–2.5 1C and 26.5–19%, respectively.
Garg et al. [127] had made some efforts to improve the
performance of conventional duct- type SAHs by providing rectan-
gular fins in the air passage between the absorber and the rear
plate. A heat-transfer analysis of a SAH composed of parallel fins
obtained relations between the length of the collector, depth of the
duct, number of fins, etc. The ‘η’ of the finned SAH was found for a
range of 45–61% for the various duct depths and fin lengths. The ‘To’
and the total heat energy collected were found to increase with an
increase in the number of fins and with a decrease in the duct
depth. A large fraction of radiation emitted from the plate was
trapped by fins and contributes indirectly for air heating. The higher
observed efficiencies indicate that the finned SAH could be compe-
titive with other high- performance collectors. Verma et al. [128]
had been analyzed the optimum flow channel depth and flow rates
in 10 different designs of SAHs. The design variations considered
were FP type with and without cover glazing; single, double and
triple pass, etc. It was found that there exists an optimum m _
corresponding to an optimum flow channel depth for each design
considered. It was also observed that a single glazing SAH operating
under double flow configuration can be given the best performance.
Parker et al. [129] had reported thermal analysis and results of
thermal performance tests of SAHs with V-corrugated absorber
trays. Total six collector units were used to test three collector types
(i.e., flow over and under the absorber, and both sides on the
absorber). Design procedures and test results were presented with
comparisons to the computed thermal performance for three basic
types of SAHs. The predicted performance, particularly with solar
glass, indicated good ηtherm for Vee -corrugated absorber.
Yeh and Lin [130] had investigated the effect of collector aspect
ratio (CAR) of the ηcoll of FP-SAHs. The theoretical predictions were
found to be agreed reasonably with the experimental results. It was
also observed that constant Ac, and the ηcoll increases with increasing
the CAR and by increasing the CAR, the fan power was increased and
leads to increase the operating cost. It was concluded that a proper
increase of the CAR should be economically feasible in the design of a
SAH. Hachemi [131] made an attempt to improve interaction between
the radiation and convection inside a SAH. For this, the author has
been considered some previous work (08 forced convection collectors
were considered) and shown the effects of convection heat transfer
on the thermal performance of FP-SAH. It was concluded, if the black-
painted covering is used then the ratio of temperature increase to
radiation increases and the Uover decreases. The ΔP was observed low
in the FPC at moderate values of the m,_ while in fanned absorber plate
collectors, the ΔP was lesser for low values of the m _ but increased
strongly when the m _ become further higher.
Mohamad [132] had analyzed a novel type of SAH experimen-
tally. In this design, the collector was combined with a double air
passage and porous media, and care was taken to minimize ΔP.
However, the ηtherm of the collector was significantly higher than
the ηtherm of conventional SAHs. The ηtherm of the suggested
collector exceeds 75% under normal operating conditions. Al-
Kamil and Al-Ghabeeb [133] had been presented an experimental
and theoretical studies of a single pass FP-SAH in southern Iraq.
 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890
The upper surface of the rear plate was painted matt black and
tests were repeated to examine the effect of thermal radiative
exchanges exclusive the air channel. Different parameters, such as,
_ were recorded and used to plot performance
the ‘T’, ‘I’ and m
curves of the system. A heat transfer model, based on the
subdivision concept, was developed and solved by computer. The
expected transient variation of the To compared practically well
with measured values. It was concluded that the ‘η’ of SAHs can be
enriched by painting the rear plate black, with an increment
maximum value of 10%. Matrawy [134] had enhanced ηtherm of a
SAH by using metal vanes which were attached between the
absorber and bottom plate of the collector. A method was devel-
oped to select an optimal number of metal vanes as well as an
appropriate depth for the flowing air duct. The results showed that
a high ηtherm can be achieved with the use of metal vanes (at
smaller depths of the air duct). The metal vanes along collector
increase ηtherm about 5% compared with the finned absorber and
about 13% compared with the absorber without extended surfaces.
Nimr and Damesh [135] had presented a mathematical model to
describe the dynamic thermal behaviour of a baffled SAH along
with an expression for the ηtherm. The two coupled partial
differential equations of the model were solved by Laplace
transformation. The effect of various design parameters on the
ηtherm of SAH was investigated. The coupling between the solid
and the working fluid, the heat losses from the fluid, and solid
Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of the cross corrugated SAH.
Fig. 6. Schematic of a double-flow SAH having different obstacles on absorber.
873
domains to the ambient were found as the major three design
parameters that affecting the thermal performance of the system.
Gao et al. [136] has been investigated the natural convection
inside the channel between FP cover and a sine-wave absorber in a
cross-corrugated SAH (Fig. 5). The investigation was performed
with the help of numerical solutions of the Navier–Stokes and
energy equations. It has been observed that to minimize the heat
loss through natural convection heat transfer inside the channel
between the cover and the absorber, the characteristic height ratio
of the channel should be larger than 2, characteristic geometric
ratio larger than 1 and the angle of inclination of the heater less
than 40o. Flores-Irigollen et al. [137] had presented a mathematical
model to describe the dynamics of the heat transfer in an inflatable
tunnel SAH. The model was developed for distributed performance
parameters, one-dimensional and unsteady-state. The thermal
inertia of a PBS acting as the absorber surface and was constituted
by 03 equations to describe the temperature variations of the 03
components of SAH: polyethylene cover, heat transfer fluid (the air)
and absorbing surface of the collector. For validation the results, few
experimental tests were conducted in a 50 m long inflatable-tunnel
type solar collector. Results of the present model were compared
favorably with experimental results.
Kurtbas and Durmus [138] had studied five solar collectors of
an approximated area of 0.36 m2. According to the design, the flow
line increased where it had narrowed and expanded geometry.
And because of this geometry, turbulence occurs in fluid flow and
the heat transfer was increased. The ηtherm of the collector was
improved with increase in m _ due to an enhanced heat transfer to
the air flow. It was seen that the increased value of the ‘h’ and ΔP,
depending on the shape and numbers of the absorbers. Karwa
Fig. 7. Experimenatl setup of a double-flow SAH having aluminium cans as an
extended surface.
Fig. 8. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup of a single and double
pass SAH.
874 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890
et al. [139] had studied the effect of flow maldistribution, caused
by the manufacturing limitations and tolerances, on the ηtherm of a
SAH array with subcollectors in parallel. The m,_ Tamb, ‘I’ and ‘h’ has
been systematically varied to study the effect under a wide range
of these parameters. The maximum reduction in the ηtherm due to
flow maldistribution was observed to be less than 3% for an array
with a commercial grade finish of the duct surfaces and 710%
built-up tolerance for the duct height.
Esen [140] had carried out an energy and exergy analysis
for a FP-SAH with several obstacles and without obstacles
(Fig. 6). The measured parameters were the, Ti and To, Tp, Tamb,
and G. The measurements were performed at different values of m _ processes in an artificially roughened SAH by using the CFD
and different levels of absorbing plates in the flow channel duct.
The optimal value of ηtherm was middle level of absorber in the
flow channel duct for all operating conditions. The obstacles
ensured a good air flow over and under the absorbing plates,
produce the turbulence, and reduce the dead zones in the solar
collector. The results shown that the irreversibility was occurring
at the FPC (where, ηcoll was smallest). The exergy relations were
also discussed for different SAHs.
Ozgen et al. [141] had investigated a system for inserting an
absorbing plate fabricated by aluminium cans into the double-pass
channel in a FP-SAH (Fig. 7). This fashion improved the ηcoll by
increasing the air velocity and enhancing the ‘h’. Three different
absorber plates had been investigated viz;. in the first design, cans
had been staggered as zigzag on absorber plate, in second design
they were arranged in order, while in the last design there was no
can. Experiments had been performed for the different values of
the m_ (0.03 kg/s and 0.05 kg/s). The first design was found more
efficient over other two designs at 0.05 kg/s. The results shown
that the double-flow type of the SAHs with aluminium cans (as an
extended heat-transfer area) leading to improved ηtherm.
Omojaro and Aldabbagh [142] had investigated the performance
of a single and double pass SAH with extended fin surface and using
a steel wire mesh as absorber plate. The effects of flow rate range
between 0.012 kg/s and 0.038 kg/s on the To and ηtherm were studied.
Results were obtained for a significant increase in the ηtherm of the
system by using a wire mesh as absorber plate. The maximum ηtherm
obtained was 59.62% and 63.74% for both single and double pass
respectively for a flow rate of 0.038 kg/s. Variation for height
difference between the glass (Fig. 8) shown that the lower height
improves the ηtherm. Akpinar and Koçyigit [143] had investigated the
performance of a new FP-SAH with several obstacles and without
obstacles. Experiments were conducted on two different m _ (0.0074
and 0.0052 kg/s). The highest ‘η’ was observed for the SAH with
absorbent plate in a flow channel duct for all types of operating
conditions (Type II), whereas the minimum values has been obtained
for the SAH without any obstacle. The results shown that the ‘ηSAC’
depends significantly on, irradaince, surface geometry and extension
of the air flow line. El-khawajah et al. [144] had presented a design
procedure and made a comparison between the measured tempera-
ture variations of three different models of counter flow SAHs
carrying, 2, 4 and 6 fins. The maximum efficiencies of the present
designs of SAHs were obtained around 85.9%, 82.1% and 75.0% at a
flow rate of 0.042 kg/s for the 6, 4 and 2 fins SAH, respectively. By
introducing porous media between the fins in the proposed design,
the rate of heat transfer between the air and bed was found to be
increased. It was found that in the proposed model the ηtherm was
higher as compared to other models. El-Sebaii et al. [145,146] had
investigated theoretically and experimentally the thermal perfor-
mance of double pass finned plate and V-corrugated SAHs. The
results were compared with those obtained for conventional FP-
SAHs. It was indicated that the double pass V-corrugated plate SAH
was 9.3–11.9% more efficient compared to double pass-finned plate
SAH. The best efficiency values were obtained when m _ equal 0.125
and 0.0225 kg/s for finned and V-corrugated SAHs, respectively.
The double pass V-corrugated plate SAH was 11–14% more efficient
compared to double pass conventional SAH. Promvonge et al. [147]
had investigated the effects of combined ribs and delta-winglet type
vortex generators (DWs). The study has been carried out on forced
convection and friction loss behaviors for turbulent airflow through a
SAH channel. The experimental result revealed that combined rib
and DW provide a considerable heat transfer augmentations and also
causes a moderate ΔP increase, depending on the α and Re values.
The best operating regime for using these compound turbulators was
found in the PD-DW arrangement, lower α and/or Re values. Yadav
and Bhagoria [148] had studied the heat transfer and fluid flow
approach. The Re, P/e and e/D were chosen as design variables and
studied for their effects on SAH. CFD simulation was performed by
using the ANSYS FLUENT 12.1 code. The Renormalization-group
(RNG) model had been considered as the most suitable model. The
maximum value of the thermal enrichment factor was found to be
1.65 for the range of parameters investigated. Hernández and
Quiñonez [149] had developed two different analytical models to
express the thermal behavior of SAHs of double-parallel flow and
double-pass counter flow. Local energy balances, algebraic expres-
sions for the efficiency factor, UL and the air temperature distribu-
tions along the solar collectors were obtained for thermal
performance evalaution of the system. The analytical expressions
were developed and found as and important tool to be included in
computational codes for designing and thermal analysis of SAHS.
Mohammadi and Sabzpooshani [150] had investigated the influ-
ence of fins and baffles attached over the absorber plate on
performance of upward type single pass SAH. It was found that
attaching fins and baffles, effectively increases the exhaust tempera-
ture and ηtherm in comparison to a conventional SAH. It was also
observed that increasing the number of fins and baffles parameters
can reduce ηeff. The results revealed that the baffle width was a
crucial parameter, when the Re increased and the flow regime was
turbulent. Chabane et al. [151] had investigated the thermal perfor-
mance of a single pass SAH with five fins attached. Longitudinal fins
were used beneath the absorber plate to increase the heat exchange
and render the flowing fluid in the channel uniform. The highest ηcol
and the air temperature variations were achieved by the finned
collector with angle of 45o, whereas the lowest values were obtained
without using fins. The values of ηtherm at a m _ ranges 0.012 and
0.016 kg/s with and without using fins varied from 40.02% to 51.50%
and from 34.92% to 43.94%, respectively. Kasperski and Nem [152]
had been carried out a thermo-hydraulic analysis of a SAH carrying
an internal multiple-fin array. A thermo-hydraulic ‘η’ test was used
to find an optimum fin arrangement on solar receiver. For an applied
set of the ducts, analysis has been carried to find the thermo-
hydraulic ‘η’ of the solar collector against the volumetric air flux. The
comparison was made with a smooth pipe arrangement on the
absorber with the present design. Proposed design enables to
decrease the demanded air flux of 7–10 times in comparison to
the smooth pipe arrangement of the absorber. Karwa and Chitoshiya
[153] had presented an experimental study of thermo-hydraulic
performance of a SAH with 60o V-down discrete rib roughness on
the airflow side of the absorber plate. The comparisions were made
over a simple design of SAH with a smooth duct. The enhancement
in the ηtherm due to the roughness on the absorber was found to be
12.5–20%. The experimental data was generated and utilized to
validate a mathematical model, which can be utilized for design and
prediction of performance of both smooth and roughened SAHs
under different operating conditions.
Prasad [154] had represented experimental results in heat
transfer and thereby thermal performance of artificially roughened
surface SAHs for fully developed turbulent flow. The experimenta
data was collected under actual outdoor conditions. The present
design SAH was found to provide a considerable higher value of
 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890 875

collector heat removal factor (FR), collector efficiency factor (F) and the ηex was not improved. Increasing the Tin increased the ηex
ηtherm as compared to smooth collectors. The ratio of the respective _
especially at high m.
values of the parameters FR, F and ηtherm for the roughened
collectors to the smooth collectors were found to be 1.786, 1.806
and 1.842, respectively. Yanga et al. [155] had designed a SAH with
4. Various models of solar air heaters
offset strip fins and optimized by numerical modeling. A series of
experiments based on ASHRAE Standard 93-2003 was conducted to
This section provides information on the various models of
test detailed thermal performance of SAH in the light of time
SAHs. The purpose of this section is to highlight the various
constant, ηtherm, incident angle modifier and the synthetical resis-
models of the SAHs with, a TES material, a CPC or PTC, and hybrid
tance coefficient. Results indicated that the instantaneous ηtherm
systems by explaining the characterstics of each model. It has been
exceeded 0.40, even when the heater was running at a low flow rate
observed that a solar thermal system can enhance the perfor-
under the typical space heating, where ‘I’ on the collecting area was
mance by using any above source. Where, one side a TES material
600 W/m2, the indoor air temperature 14 1C, the outdoor air
(in the form of SHS or LHS) improve the performance the system
temperature 5 1C and solar incidence angle 201. Collins and Abulk-
in the off sunshine hours, there on, a CPC or PTC increased the
hair [156] had discussed the use of unglazed transpired solar
efficiency during the sunshine hours by focusing the solar irra-
collectors (UTSCs) as one of the most effective methods of reducing
diance on the system. Apart this, hybrid systems (SAHs) can be
HVAC loads in buildings. A perforated absorber tray was installed in
operated on an alternative fuel besides solar energy such as;
a particular location (to be exposed to solar radiation). The pre-
electrical back up or fossil fuel [232]. In the upcoming sub-
warmed air had a significant effect towards decreasing the energy
sections a detailed study of these sytems has been presented.
used for heating. The intent of the current investigation was, to
numerically investigate modern UTSC system performance. Corre-
lations for heat loss and effectiveness were also developed for the
4.1. Solar air heaters with thermal storages
present SAH. Wang et al. [157] had been tested a new-type all-glass
evacuated tubular SAH integrated with a simple compound para-
Storage of solar energy is an imperative for future success of solar
bolic collector (CPC). The system was fabricated with the help of ten
energy employment. The main problem is assortment of materials
linked collecting panels. Each panel includes a CPC and all-glass
having appropriate thermo-physical characteristics in which solar
evacuated tube with a U-shaped copper tube heat exchanger
energy can be stored in the form of heat. These materials can divide
(installed inside). The air was heated with a slow rate by passing
into two broad categories; those that store energy in the form of
through each U-shaped tube. The heat transfer model of the SAH
sensible heat; and those that undergo a change of state or physical–
was established with a simulation study and the Tout, heat power
chemical change at a certain temperature within the practical range
and heat efficiency were calculated experimentally. The present
of temperature provided by the solar heat collectors. The thermal heat
SAH provide the exhaust exceeding 200 1C.
storages purposely for use solar thermal applications are; (i) Sensible
Chauhan and Thakur [158] had presented a thermo-hydraulic
heat storage (SHS): as sensible heat in solids (rocks or water).
performance study of an impinging jet SAH in the form of ηeff and
The heat storage medium, thereby experiences an increase in
compared it with a conventional SAH. The study was carried out to
temperature without undergoing a change in its phase, (ii) Latent
oberve the effect of, Re, diameter of the jet, streamwise and
heat storage (LHS): as latent heat of fusion in suitable chemical
spanwise pitch on the ηeff. It was concluded that impinging jet
compounds (paraffin waxes and inorganic salts) (Fig. 9) [161,162]. By
SAH performs better than the conventional SAH for a specified
using these heat storing materials one can not only improve the
range of Re. The maximum ηeff was observed around 70% for
thermal performance of a SAH but extend the duration of heating up
impinging jet SAH in the range of investigated SAH and perfor-
to long hours. Besides this, a good heat storing capacity of these
mance parameters. The designs were ploted for each jet parameter
materials are very useful for solar thermal systems to perform in
with a temperature rise parameter in order to achive an optimum
poor ambient conditions or in the night. There are various types of
ηeff for a desired value of temperature rise. The dual purpose solar TES materials for solar thermal systems and some of them are shown
systems were used to achieve a greater efficiency and lower heat
in Table 6 [164–200], which have been commonly used in SAHs. On
dissipation. Nematollahi et al. [159] had investigated a dual purpose
the other hand, to design an effective short term TES system using
water and SAHS, experimentally. The present system consists of a
PCM, Iten and Liu [163] had purposely reviewed a typical procedure.
dual purpose solar FPC and a vertical water storage tank. Water and
The methodology focused on the selection of the working material
the air have natural and forced convection in FPC, respectively.
and the heat exchanger type. The selection of PCMs was observed
Furthermore, a high temperature and high performance can be
that one of the main keys for any TES to be investigated with almost
obtained using this solar FPC. The system can be used to heat water
properties. The other main key, when designing TES is related to the
and the air simultaneously or separately. The hot water can be
air heat exchanger formed by the PCM and the cold/hot heat sources.
utilized for domestic applications or as a (TES) for heating the air.
The hot air can also be used in the air conditioning systems,
industrial processes and dryers. The result shows that the ‘η’ of
the dual purpose system was 3–5% higher than a single purpose
system. Sabzpooshani et al. [160] had studied the exergetic perfor-
mance of a baffled type SAH, theoretically. A detailed parametric
study was carried out to investigate the effect of variation of fin and
baffle parameters, the number of glass covers, δ and Tin at different
values of m _ on the ηex. The results indicated that attaching fins and
baffles at low flow rate can lead to noticeable enhancement of the
ηex. The result reveals that the trend of variation of energy and
ηex(s) were not the same and the ηex was the chief criterion for
performance evaluation. The results showed that ηex increases with
increasing the irradiance. By adding the second glass cover the ηex
enhanced at low m, _ while increasing the ‘δ’ over an optimum value, Fig. 9. Classification of solar air heaters on the basis of TES.
876 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890

4.2. Solar air heaters with concentrators
Concentrating solar collectors (reflective and refractive) pro-
vide energy at temperatures higher than FPCs. They concentrate
(re-direct also) solar radiation into the absorber and generally
necessitate tracking of the sun (Fig. 10). There are various con-
centrating solar collectors of different shapes; sizes and orienta-
tion are being in use today. Many of them have some unique
qualities mainly related to the means making the collectors more
efficient for the collection of solar radiatiant energy. The primary
consideration in designing of a SAH with concentrator is to attain
high collector efficiencies and to obtain the air flows at higher
temperatures than those from FPCs (to fulfill the demand of the
hot air) [201,202]. Some novel concepts of heating of the air by a
SAH integrated with concentrator are discussed below.
Demichelis and Minetti-Mezzetti [203] had examined a focusing
solar collector for air heating concentration (Fresnel lenses being
used). The sunlight was focalized on black metallic sheets, con-
tained in an insulated box to transfer the energy to the dry air. The
sheets with similar heights were arranged at a distance one from
another increasing from the center to the edges in order to trap all
the incident energy. The average Re was 8300 at the inlet, with a ‘h’
of 155 kcal/hm2 1C. An average difference of the temperature ΔTi
between the sheets and air was of 8 1C in all channels for a flow
rate of 150 kg/h. Bird et al. [204] had proposed an innovative
concept for air-heating central receivers. The purpose of the study

Table 6
Some commonly used TES in SAHs.

Reference Heat storing media Results

used

Lalude and Buchberg Honeycomb-porous Tp was ranged from 71 1C to115 1C

[164] bed
Mishra and Sharma [165] Pebbles and Fe and Al ηsystem was notified 33%, 28% and 25% respectively
chips
Saez and McCoY [166] Packed column of To was ranged from 26 1C to 65 1C
rock bins
Peck and Proctor [167] Rock-bed thermal ηsystem was notified 49% maximum
storage
Bansal and Uhlemann Porous type textile ηsystem was notified 70.65% maximum
[168] absorber
Sodha et al. [169] Water To was ranged from 33 1C to 61 1C
Bhargava et al. [170] Rock bed collector To was observed 46 1C maximum
Garg et al. [171] Porous bed absorber efficiency improved from 47.93% to 72.19%
Rizzi and Sharma [172] Bricks ηsystem was notified around 55% to 60% maximum
Sharma et al. [173] Packed bed collector ηsystem was notified 61% maximum
H.E.S. Fath [174] Sand, paraffin, ηtherm was notified 63.5% maximum
Glauber’s salt
Abbud et al. [175] Rock bed storage efficiency improved from 2% to 12%
Chauhan et al. [176] Rock bed storage efficiency improved with decreasing drying rate
Ahmad et al. [177] Packed-bed of iron ηsystem was notified 42.2% maximum
gravels
A.-Enein et al. [178] Sand, granite and To was found maximum for sand
water
Enibe [179] Paraffin type PCM ηsystem was reached up to 50%
Enibe [180] Paraffin type PCM ηtherm was improved from 7.5% to 18%
Thakur et al. [181] Low porosity packed heat transfer rate was improved
bed
Naphon [182] Porous media ηtherm was improved 25.9% than system without porous media
Wang et al. [183] AlSi12 and AlSi20 heat storage ratio was 44.5% & 68% respectively
El-Sebaii et al. [184] Limestone and gravel ηtherm was reached up to 80%
Prasad et al. [185] Packed bed storage 53.3% to 68.5% improvement was observed in ηtherm
Saravankumar and Gravel with iron ηtherm was improved from10% to 20%
Mayilsamy [186] scraps
Alkilani et al. [187] Paraffin wax with Al To was observed 42 1C maximum
powder
Karthikeyan and Velraj Commercial grade To was found suitable for solar drying and space heating
[188] paraffin
Tyagi et al. [189] Paraffin wax with an improvement was observed in ηtherm from 20% to 53%
hytherm oil
Zhao et al. [190] Pebble bed energy system can meet 32.8% of the thermal energy demand
storage
Aissa et al. [191] Granite stone storage To was observed 10-25 1C more than Tamb
material
Krishnananth and Paraffin wax in Al To was observed 58 1C maximum
Murugavel [192] capsules
Dhiman et al. [193] Porous material ηtherm was observed 75% maximum
Yadav et al. [194] Desert sand ηtherm was improved from 47% to 69%
Saxena et al. [195] Granular carbon ηtherm was improved from 43% to 73%
powder
Bouadila et al. [196] PCM Capsules (SN27) ηenergy was varied between 32% and 45%
Esakkimuthu et al. [197] Inorganic salt (HS 58) ηtherm was observed around 60%
Charvat et al. [198] Rubitherm (RT42) To was observed 57 1C maximum
Karthikeyan et al. [199] Paraffin wax (packed results shown that increasing the heat transfer surface area with small balls, higher ΔT between the HTF inlet and the
bed) phase change temperature of the PCM, and increasing mof_ the HTF had a significant effect on the charging time of SAH
Bouadila et al. [200] Packed bed (AC27) To was higher around 7 1C than Ti, all the night
 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890
Fig. 10. Concentrating type SAH [202].
was to evaluate the potential of seven different concepts based on
an independent, uniform assessment of each concept’s performance
and cost. The study was limited to a comparison of the air-heating
receivers and did not include complete air-heating process heat
systems. The results were to be used as input to a more compre-
hensive system study. Togrul and Pehlivan [205] had investigated
the ‘η’ of a new SAH with a conical concentrator, under forced
convection. The collector absorber was arranged as a 2-pass
exchanger (mounted on the focal axis of the concentrator) and
tested for some different tilt angles and the different values of m. _
The most efficient angle was found to be 28.41 (lowest) leading upto
50% efficiency and 82 1C. The ‘η’ values acquired by the conical solar
collector were close, but exhaust temperatures were approximately
twice those reported for conventional FPSCs without any packing in
the passage space for the air.
Togrul et al. [206] had evaluated the performance of a SAH with
a cylindrical shaped absorber and positioned to the center to a
conical concentrator for focusing incident solar radiation. It has
been noticed that a tilt angle under a local latitude would be
appropriate for solar collector installation. Although, the ηsys at free
convection conditions was very less than FP-SAHs, but exhaust
temperatures were reached upto 150 1C, sucessfully. Thermal effi-
ciencies were found to be increased up to 12% and the air
temperatures were increased up to 150 1C in SAH with concentrator
under natural convection and sun-tracking conditions. Nasir [207]
had presented a experimental study of the performance of a PTC-
SAH. The SAH was a double FPSC type, constructed with galvanized
square pipes and assembled into a parabolic trough concentrator
(PTC), which was capable of generating heat after being reflected
and concentrated on the absorber. The maximum temperature
attained was 97 1C with a ηover of 65%. The SAH was a fixed doubled
FP-PTC type with a tilt angle of 201. The system was designed with
locally available materials to produce the hot air around 120 1C for
the residence and industrial heating, and drying processes. The
experiments were conducted on the SAH to improve the ηsys upto
65% and can be attained around 97 1C of exhaust temperature.
Pramuang and Exell [208] had presented a methodology to measure
the performance parameters of a solar collector under non-steady
operating conditions particularly for a SAH with a truncated CPC
having an approximated aperture area of 1.44 m2 and a flat
absorber with a concentration ratio (CR) of three. The parameters
such as; the ηopt, the linear and nonlinear ‘UL’, and the effective heat
capacity were obtained through numerical analysis. Agreement
within 2% was found between the ηopt measured in the experiments
and the ηopt determined from direct measurements of the optical
properties of the materials in the solar collector.
Togrul and Pehlivan [209] had been devoloped a new SAH with a
conical concentrator tracking the sun. A selective absorber and
packing in the two-pass air flow passage of the absorbing tube and
their effects on the efficiencies were investigated. Al made wire
mesh with a variety of folding number was examined for the
packing material. By using selective absorber and Al wire mesh
877
packing in the system, it has been found that forced convection
efficiency of the system may be increased by 6% with selective
surface, by 60% with packing material and lastly 68% by using both
of them. Maximum efficiencies were achieved by using Al wire
mesh packing of 14 numbers of folds and selective absorbing
surface, together. Tchinda [210] had developed a mathematical
model for computing thermal performance of a SAH with a
truncated CPC having a flat one-sided absorber. The effects of the
_ ‘v’, and collector length on the thermal performance of SAH were
m,
investigated. Predictions for performance of SAH also exhibit
reasonable agreement, with experimental data with an average
error of 7%. Bader et al. [211] had designed a cylindrical cavity-
receiver in which a tubular absorber was incorporated to supply the
air as heat transfer fluid for a novel PTC. The Monte Carlo ray-
tracing and radiosity methods were approached to establish solar
irradiance distribution and radiative exchange within the solar
receiver. Simulations were permormed for a 50 m-long and 9.5 m-
wide collector section with 120 1C air inlet temperature, and the
flow rate was in the range 0.1–1.2 kg/s. The Tout ranges from 260 1C
to 601 1C, and corresponding absorption efficiencies varied between
60% and 18%. Khalil et al. [212] had studied a drier in the form of
SAH which dries Apricots. A small dish type SAH connected to a
drying chamber was developed to evaluate its performance for
drying apricots. The ηsys was evaluated at three different flow rates.
Result shows that flow rates significantly affected the ηsys. Efficiency
improved from 20% at the natural flow rate of 0.01 kg/sec, to 42.6%
at a high convective flow rate of 0.21 kg/sec. It was concluded that
SAHs with a concentrator, must be operated at high flow rates to get
the maximum ‘η’ for a valuable drying of apricots.
Kasperski and Nem [213] had been investigated a concentrating
type SAH. The receiver arrangement was proposed according to
the mandate of single pattern production. The external surface of
the receiver’s cylinder was covered with high-temperature resis-
tant black paint (Si). In this model, two types of SAHs were
considered and analyzed: one with a double glass evacuated pipe
with black painted absorber and the second one with a single glass
pipe with absorber covered with selective layer. An improvement
of 14% was observed in thermo-hydraulic efficiency of the system.
4.3. Hybrid solar air heaters
The most commonly used technologies for domestic hot water
heating and space heating are a photovoltaic and a solar collector.
Additional power backup has not only enhanced the efficiency of a
solar thermal system, but also help the system to perform for a
Fig. 11. A prototype PV/T air collector [222].
878 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890
long hours in poor ambient conditions (Fig. 11). In this state, the
said system performs on dual input (fuel), i.e. ‘electricity, gener-
ated by PV and solar energy’ or ‘solar energy and other (alter-
native) fuel such as; electricity, oil, LPG etc. A few good designs of
hybrid SAHs are discussed in this section.
Hughes et al. [214] had studied two basic types of off-peak solar
energy systems. The systems were designed so that sufficient
energy remains available inside the system, either from stored solar
energy or through auxiliary energy to meet the space heating load
during peak demand periods. Auxiliary energy can be stored on-
site, (oil or LPG), or provided by a utility (electricity or natural gas).
In the areas with high densities of solar heated buildings, unac-
ceptable peaks in demand can be occurred during poor ambient
conditions. There were several off-peak auxiliary SAHS compared,
using simulation methods to determine the best ways of incorpor-
ating on-site TES of energy supplied by a utility. Forsstrbm and Lund
[215] had developed a simple simulation model for a district SAHS
with effective heat storage and with necessary heat recovery
facilities. The SAHS was integrated with auxiliary power and
experimentation was carried out to study the effects of operating
strategy on auxiliary energy costs. The control was mainly realized
by charging storage unit with an electric driven heat pump or with
an electric boiler. The system was characterized by storage tem-
perature. Sodha et al. [216] had presented a simple techno-
economic model for a hybrid SAHS based on water as the TES.
The system deals with conventional SAH, water tank for TES, a unit
which adjusts higher air temperature to the required limit and an
arrangement for providing auxiliary energy (when required).
A thermostatically controlled electric heater was used as a source
of auxiliary energy. Results have shown that the cost of useful
energy obtained from optimized values of collector area and storage
mass was much less than the cost of electrical heating.
Yeh and Ting [217] had improved the performance of a SAH by
using a packing of iron fillings between absorbing plate and glass
cover to create air turbulence and an extended heat-transfer area. The
heat sources were consists of 84 electrical energy supplies (110 V,
125 W). During operations, strengths of heat sources were adjusted
by using a set of on–off switches. Bhargava et al. [218] had analyzed a
hybrid system consisting a SAH with PV solar system by developing a
mathematical model. The optimum area of the solar cells necessary to
produce sufficient electrical energy for the pump was calculated for
different configurations of SAH. A linear relation was used to calculate
the variation of the ‘η’ of solar cells with the temperature. It was
shown that the hybrid system was self-sufficient only for certain
design parameters and flow rates. Garg et al. [219] had discussed
some performance parameters for a hybrid air-to-water solar heater
(consisting of three individual unit air heater, air-to-water finned tube
heat exchanger, and hot water storage tank) for Delhi (India). The
steady state heat transfer analysis of the system shown that higher
flow rate of the air and the lower flow rate of the water result in peak
storage tank temperature heat exchanger. It was concluded that the
storage tank temperature rises with rising of air heater area. Choudh-
ary and Garg [220] had carried out a transient analysis of a hybrid
SWH, comprises a rock bed SAH. The system was in conjunction with
an air-to-water. The shell-and-tube type heat exchanger receives heat
from the exhaust of the SAH which flows in the shell at right angles to
the water flowing in the tubes. A comparative study was prepared for
the system’s performance with and without a rock bed in the SAH.
The system performance was observed to be increase with the flow
rates of the air and water, no significant improvement in the system’s
performance was achieved at M _ wZM _ a (where, M_ w and M_ a were flow
rate of water and the air, respectively).
Misra [221] had developed three hybrid SAHS by using low cost
plastic SACs. Analytical expressions were obtained for the ηcol in
terms of design parameters for SAHS. The utility of performance
equations was verified through experiments and a transient model
with open loop and closed loop cycle. The present hybrid system
was fabricated by locally available plastic air heaters with air/water
heat exchanger and found economic, corrosion free, less leakage
problems and more suitable than conventional air–water heating
systems in their performance for a domestic use. Sopain et al. [222]
had analyzed the performance of single-pass and double-pass solar
heater combined PV/T collectors with steady-state models. The
models were based on energy conservation at various nodes of
the PV/T collector. Closed form solutions were obtained from the
differential equations for both type of solar collectors. The result
shows that a double-pass PV/T collector had superior performance
and higher PV cell efficiency by using new design.
Garg and Adhikari [223] had carried out performance analysis of
a conventional hybrid PV/T air heater. Various performance para-
meters were calculated through a simulation model for single glass
and double glass configurations. Solar cells were found for a
significant effect on ηtherm on the SAHS. Results were obtained by
using energy balance equations and shows the effect of various
design and operational parameters on performance of SAH. Later
on, the same team [224] developed a simulation model and
discussed it for another hybrid PV/T-SAHS with air as a heat transfer
fluid. An algorithm for making quantitative prediction regarding the
performance of the SAH was also described. The ηtherm curves for
solar PVT hybrid SAH corresponding to various types of absorbers
were derived. In order to appreciate model, numerical calculations
were made for evaluation of the system’s performance. Othman
et al. [225] had designed a prototype double-pass PV/T – SAC with
CPC and fins. The absorber of the system consisting an array of solar
cells for producing electricity. CPC was used to increase the
intensity of solar irradiance falling on the solar cells. While, fins
have been attached to the back side of the absorber plate to
improve heat transfer to the flowing air. Results were obtained by
using energy balance equations and shows that electricity produc-
tion in PV/T hybrid module decreases with the increase in tem-
perature of the flow. Kasayapananda and Kiatsiriroat [226] had
examined laminar forced convection inside SAH with various wire
electrode arrangements for heat transfer enhancement using
electro-hydrodynamic technique. The electric field was generated
by the wire electrodes charged with DC high voltage ranging from
7.5 to 17.5 kV. Re corresponding to flow was between 100 and 2000.
The enhancement of ‘h’ with the presence of electric field increases
in relation to the supplied voltage, but decreases when the Re and
distance between electrodes and channel surface were augmented.
The optimized electrode arrangement which obtains the best ‘h’
was investigated incorporating with the ΔP consideration.
Tiwari and Sodha [227] had developed a thermal model of an
integrated PV and thermal solar water/air heating system. An
analytical expression for temperature of solar cell and water and
an overall ηtherm of the system were derived as a function of climatic
and design parameters. Four configurations; (i) unglazed with
tedlar, (ii) glazed with tedlar, (iii) unglazed without tedlar and (iv)
glazed without tedlar were considered. It was observed that the
overall ηtherm of the system for summer and winter conditions was
about 65% and 77%, respectively. Joshi and Tiwari [228] had studied
performance of a hybrid PV/T parallel plate SAH for four climatic
conditions. It was observed that an instantaneous energy and ηex of
the PV/T air heater varies between 55–65% and 12–15%, respec-
tively. The results were very close to the results predicted by other
previous work on PV/T solar collectors in Denmark. An increment
about 2–3% was observed in exergy due to thermal energy in
addition to its 12% electrical output from the PV/T system which
made an overall ηelect of about 14–15% of PV/T system. Charalam-
bous et al. [229] had reviewed hybrid PV/T collectors which
simultaneously converts solar energy into electricity and heat. The
discussion and arguments were made in various aspects of PV/T air
heating systems and in regard of their thermal performance. The
 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890
systems were differentiated with respect to the flow of the air
above the absorber, below the absorber, on both sides of the
absorber in single and in double pass. Tiwari and Sodha [230] had
evaluated the overall performance of hybrid PV/T–SAC. The differ-
ent configurations of hybrid SACs were considered as unglazed and
glazed PV/T air heaters, with and without tedlar. It was observed
that overall ηtherm of hybrid system and ηsc increased with increase
of mass flow rate through the duct due to reduction in losses from
the system. There was a significant increase in an overall ηtherm of
the system, if more small modules were connected in series for a
given length of the system.
Othman et al. [231] had studied a hybrid PV/T–SAH system which
generates both electricity and heat simultaneously. The system
consisted of mono-crystalline silicon cells pasted on absorber with
fins attached at the other side of the absorber surface. The air as a
heat carrying fluid was made to flow through an upper channel and
then under the lower channel of the collector, while a small part of
absorbed ‘I’ was converted to electricity. Result shows that the
importance to use fins as an integral part of the absorber surface in
order to achieve significant efficiencies for both thermal and elec-
trical output. Chasapis et al. [232] had presented the perfromance
results of a hybrid solar thermal-biomass space heating system in
Greece. The system was installed at Centre for Renewable Energy
Sources (central Greece) to fulfill the demand of all heat require-
ments for a specific office block of approximated 60 m2 area. The
system was analyzed and optimized over a duration of six months.
The solar contribution during the actual measurement period (60% of
the operating period) has covered around 60% of the total heating
demand. Aste et al. [233] had carried out experimental and theore-
tical results of a research and development (R & D) program for the
design, development and performance monitoring of a hybrid PV/T–
SAC at the Politecnico di Milano. One of the main products of the
research was consisted of a simulation model for performance
prediction of the solar energy system. This R & D program led to
the development of the integrated solar roof, an innovative techno-
logical system for building integration of hybrid PV/T air collectors.
Ibrahim et al. [234] had designed two different PV/T solar
collectors in which, the first collector generated hot water and
electricity, while the second was generated hot air and electricity.
The experimental results shows that single flow absorber collector
generates combined PV/T efficiency of 64%, ηelect of 11% and
maximum power achieved at 25.35 W. It was recommended for
the PV/T system to further improve the ηsys by optimizing the
contact surfaces between the solar panel. Alfegi et al. [235] had
conducted an experimental study on the influence of m _ on PV/T
performance. The system consists of PV cell pasted directly on the
absorber with fins attached at back of the absorber. The effect of
flow rates on the performance of, PV, thermal, and combined PV/T
collector over a range of operating conditions was discussed. Results
at ‘I’ equals 600 W/m2 and the Ti of 35 1C shows that the combined
PV/T efficiency was increased from 49.135% to 62.823% at flow rates
varies from 0.0316 to 0.09 kg/s. Sun and Shi [236] had designed a
single-pass PV/T–SAHS with a three-trough CPC of concentration
ratio value of 2. Based on energy balance, heat transfer models of all
major components in the PV/T–SAH were developed. The effects of
some basic design and operational parameters on the electric–
thermal performance of the system were analyzed. The ηtherm,
exergy and ηelect of the CPC system increased with increase of the
mass flow rate (m) _ and length of the system. It has been observed
that by increasing packing fraction, the ηelect increases and the
ηtherm decreases. Dubey et al. [237] had developed analytical
expression for ηelect of PV module with and without flow as a
function of climatic and design parameters. The four different
configurations of PV modules were considered for the study. It
was found that the glass to glass PV modules with duct gave higher
ηelect as well as the higher outlet air temperature amongst all four
879
cases. The annual average η of glass to glass type PV module with
and without duct was 10.41% and 9.75%, respectively.
Dubey et al. [238] had derived analytical expressions for ‘N’ hybrid
PV/T air collectors connected in series. The performance of collectors
were evaluated by considering two different cases, i.e., the air
collector was fully covered by PV module and the air flows above
and below the absorber plate. A detailed analysis of energy, exergy
and electrical energy concluded that the design of second configura-
tion was beneficial in the terms of hot air production and electricity
generation, simultaneously. The system was feasible to fulfill the
demand of electricity generation for lighting and hot air supply for
space heating or drying, simultaneously. Sarhaddi et al. [239] had
investigated thermal and electrical performance of a PV/T–SAC. The
thermal and electrical parameters of the system include the solar cell
temperature, back surface temperature, To, open-circuit voltage;
short-circuit current, maximum power point voltage, maximum
power point current, etc. The results of numerical simulation were
obtained for a good agreement with experimental measurements.
It was observed that the thermal and electrical simulation results
obtained were more precise than the previous literature. It was also
found that, the ηtherm, ηelect and ηover of PV/T–SAC were about 17.18%,
10.01% and 45%, respectively. Kumar and Rosen [240] had reviewed
the integrated PV/T solar collectors and found them for a great
interest in solar thermal and photovoltaic research communities. The
authors critically reviewed PV/T solar collectors for air heating and
recent advances, generally applied to SAHs. It was notified that the
PV/T–SAH may in the future be practicable for preheating air for
numereous tasks such as; space heating and drying. These integrated
PV/T collectors were found to deliver more useful energy per unit
collector area than a separate PV and thermal system. Candanedo
et al. [241] had presented a experimental study for the development
of convective heat transfer correlations for an open loop air-based
building integrated PV/T system. The system was designed to absorb
solar energy through the top surface including the PV panels and
generates electricity. The air drawn by a fan through a channel
formed by the rooftop with PV modules and an insulated attic layer.
For the top heated surface, Nu was in the range of 6–48 for Re
ranging from 250 to 7500. From bottom insulated surface, Nu was in
the range of 22–68 for Re ranges from 800 to 7060. Kumar and Rosen
[242] had investigated a PV/T–SAH with a double pass configuration
and vertical fins in the lower channel. The fins were arranged
perpendicular to the direction of air flow to enhance the ‘h’ and ‘η’.
The effects of design, climatic and operating parameters were
evaluated on To, cell temperature, ηtherm, ηelect and total equivalent
ηtherm. The effects of presence of fins in the lower air channel, the
depth of ducts of the air channels, flow rate, Tin and packing factor
were evaluated on the ηtherm and ηelect. The extended fin area reduces
the cell temperature considerably, from 82oC to 66oC. Touafek et al.
[243] had designed a new hybrid collector for air heating. The
theoretical study was carried out through the numerical modeling,
and results of simulation were integrally developed; which a proto-
type was realized. It was noted that importance of heat recovery that
can catalyze the development of hybrid collectors. The useful thermal
power obtained was about 290 W, while ηtherm was around 48%. The
application of this new design had given a good thermal and
electrical performance compared to the traditional hybrid collectors.
Sobhnamayan [244] had carried out a comparative study
between two equations for ηex of PV/T air collectors; the first
equation was based on net output exergy while the second
equation was in terms of exergy losses. Developing an exergy
balance in PV/T air collector system, the various exergy compo-
nents in the PV/T system were introduced. It was observed that the
improved ηex obtained was in good agreement with the previous
literature and it was better because it shows the portion of each of
exergy losses in the ηex equation, directly. Shahsavar et al. [245]
had analyzed energy and exergy performance of a naturally
880 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890

ventilated PV/T air collector which was designed, manufactured (Table 7). For a detail of thermal performance of SAHs kindly
and tested at a geographic location of Kerman, Iran. In the system, follow references [247–262].
a thin metal sheet was used to improve heat extraction from the Apart this, if the discussion can be made especially for different
PV panels and consequently achieving high thermal and electrical designs of SAHs then there are some good physical models of FP-
output. The metal sheet was suspended in the middle of an air SAH has been developed. FP-SAHs consist of four major elements,
channel in the studied PV/T air configuration. The validated model well known; (i) a FP absorber to absorb the solar energy, (ii) a
was then used to study the effect of ‘I’, channel depth, collector transparent cover (s) to allow solar energy to pass through and
length, and ηsc on total energy and ηex of studied system. Touafek reduces heat loss from the absorber, (iii) a heat-transport fluid (the
et al. [246] had carried out a theoretical study through the air) flowing through the collector to remove heat from the
numerical modeling of a hybrid SAC, and the results of the absorber, and (iv) a heat insulating backing. These types of SAHs
simulation were integrally developed. Experimental validation of have been investigated and are now successfully used in agricul-
the mathematical model and the study of thermal and electric ture and for both industrial and domestic purposes. In general, the
performance of the system was carried out in detail. The applica- performance of a solar thermal collector depends on some major
tion of this new design provided a good thermal and electrical parameters which are as; (1) typology of the construction,
performance over the traditional hybrid solar collectors. Its easi- (2) choice of materials – τ (to solar and infrared radiation), α0
ness of implementation and simple integration in buildings make and ε, (3) ambient conditions – Ta, Vw, I, (4) geometry – L, a, b,
them more competitive. (5) flow rate – m, (6) inlet temperature of the fluid – Ti,
(7) characteristics of the working fluid – Cp, l, λ, and ρ [256–260].
The steady-state procedure is commonly used among various
procedures/methods which have been developed, previously. In
5. Thermal performance of solar air heaters this method, transient effects due to the absorber heat capacity
can be minimized by performing tests only during periods, when
There are numerous designs of SAHs, which has been experi- the ‘I’ and ‘Tamb’ are steady. One can easily understand the thermal
mentally tested in different climatic conditions. In their thermal behavior of a SAH/SAC by taking the case of a simple FP-SAH in
performance evaluation, different numerical or experimental which a single air flow between absorber and glass plates are
techniques have been described so as to allow the net thermal assumed to convey the heat of the ‘I’. The energy balance
output of an irradiated SAH array to be reproduced indoors. There equations for cover glass, absorber plate and air flow respectively,
are several methods and techniques to evaluate the thermal are as follows;
performance of different types of SAHs, which are followed by
the basic fundamentals FPC’s. In this section, some major para- ∂T g ∂2 T g
αg S ¼ M g C g þ kg δg 2 þ hw ðT g T a Þ þ hrgs ðT g  T s Þ
meters for performance evaluation of SAHS such as thermal ∂t ∂x
efficiency, exergy, heat transfer, heat loss, friction factor, and
þ hcgf ðT g  T f Þ þ hrpg ðT g  T p Þ ð1Þ
pressure drop etc., and their evaluation methodology has been
discussed purposely for SAHs. The effect of no air leakage and air
∂T p ∂2 T p
leaks in/out has also been incorporated into the performance αp τ p S ¼ M p C p þ kp δp 2 þ hcpf ðT p  T f Þ
∂t ∂x
equations. Following equations can be used to obtain the values
of necessary parameters to observe the thermal behaviour of SAHs þ hrpg ðT p  T g Þ þU r ðT p  T a Þ ð2Þ

Table 7
Necessary parameters to evaluate the thermal performance of a SAH [247–262].

Parameters Equations

Mass flow rate m_ ¼ ρ:A:V

Equivalent diameter of the duct de ¼ 2LH=L þ H
Reynolds number ‘Re’ Re ¼ Vρ:2LH=μðL þ HÞ, and ReP ¼ 4r h Go =μ (for packed bed)
Nusselt number ‘Nu’ Nu ¼ ðh U DÞ=k
Stanton number ‘St’ St ¼ Nu=Re U Pr
Angle of tilt (for collector) β ¼ L 7 150
Solar insolation on the collector surface I t ¼ I h cos θ= cos ϕh
Collector (absorber plate) area AC ¼ mC P ðT o  T i Þ=ðI t ηc τραÞ
Collector (absorber plate) thickness (t) _ P ðT o  T i Þ
t ¼ K s AðT o  T a Þ=mc
h
i
Glass cover thickness (tg) t g ¼ 0:35U1
 1
þ 1
kg
L h o ha
Pressure drop ΔP ΔP¼ 2f (ρ.V2) L/de
Friction factor f¼ 24/Re for laminar flow & f ¼0.079 Re-0.25 for turbulent flow
Overall heat transfer coefficient (h) h ¼ Q u =Ap ðT p  T f Þ
Overall heat loss coefficient (UL) " #−1 " #
σðT 2P −T 2a ÞðT P −T a Þ
UL ¼ N
C t T P −T a 0:33
þ h1w þ 2N þ f t −1 þ ki =t i
1
þ −1
TP N þ f t f∈P þ 0:05Nð1−∈P Þg ∈g

Where; hw ¼ 5:7 þ 3:8vw , C t ¼ 520:½1  0:0000513 U β2 

Edge heat loss coefficient
Collector efficiency factor
Velocity of air flowing through the duct
Thermal efficiency
Thermo-hydraulic efficiency
The daily efficiency
While, the properties of the air can be
estimated by;
 
f t ¼ 1 þ 0:089 U hw þ 0:1166 U hw εp ð1 þ 0:0786NÞ
U e ¼ ðW þ LÞ U L1 U ki =W U L U t e
F P ¼ h=h þ U L
_
V ¼ m=ρWH
η  Q u =I:Ac ¼ m _ : C P ðT o  T i Þ=I:Ac
ηTH ¼ Q_ u  P f an =IAP
R R
_ f ðT f o  T f i Þdt=AP Idt
ηdaily ¼ mc
 0:015
The specific heat C P ¼ 1006 T f =293 , the dynamic viscosity μ ¼ 1:81  10  5 ðT f =293Þ0:735 , thermal conductivity
K ¼ 0:0257  ðT f =293Þ0:8 , the densityρ ¼ 97500=287:045  T f , the Prandtl number P r ¼ μ  C p =K
 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890 881

∂T f Gf C f ∂2 T f For two collectors connected in series, Eq. (11) is modified to

Mf C f þ ¼ hcgf ðT f  T g Þ þ hcpf ðT p  T f Þ ð3Þ
9
∂t W ∂x2 8 _ P
< þ
ðF RL U L ÞAa 1 þ AmC 0 =
þ þ U F
ðF RL U L Þ2 ¼ ðF RL ULÞ 1 

a L
ð12Þ
: 2m _ iCP 1 þ m_L ;
_i
m
5.1. SAH with no air leakage
Eqs. (11) and (12) can be generalized to any number, N of
Then, under steady-state conditions, the useful energy from a identical collectors in series as;
single irradiated SAC can be expressed by; 8
 98
1+9
_L *0 þ _ P
< mC
_ P 1þm =< ðF ÞA 1 þ mC =
Q_ U ¼ Ag ½K ατ ðAa =Ag ÞF R ðταÞn G  ðAa =Ag ÞF R U L ðF f i  t a Þ
_ RL a 0
m A U F
ð4Þ þ
ðF RL U L ÞN ¼
i
 1  @1 
a L
 A
:NA 1 þ mC _ P ;: m_ LCP 1 þ m _L ;
a Aa U F 0 m_i
L

The useful energy output a single solar collector module can be ð13Þ
estimated by;
  
_ P
mC Aa F 0 U L Thus, for N irradiated collectors connected in series, the useful
FR ¼ 1 exp ð5Þ
U L Aa _
mC P energy output, QUN, is

Aa þ Aa þ
Where, the F’ is the collector efficiency factor. Even though F’ and Q_ UN ¼ NAg K ατ fF RL ðατÞn gN G  fF RL U L gN
Ag Ag
UL {UL ¼ (τ.α)n} are temperature dependent, and both of them are    
m_ LCP 1 1
assumed constant. Eq. (4) for the case, where two collectors are  1þ  ðt  t Þ ð14Þ
U L F 0 fF RL
þ f i a
connected in series becomes; Aa U L gN
   The useful energy output of a solar collector array consisting of
ðF R U L ÞAa
ðF R U L Þ2 ¼ ðF R U L Þ 1  ð6Þ M rows of N collectors in series can be estimated by;
2mC_ P

Aa þ Aa þ
Q_ UMN ¼ MNAg K ατ fF RL ðατÞn gN G  fF RL U L gN
Similarly, to any number N of identical collectors in series the Ag Ag
   
equation can be written as; m_ LCP 1 1
"  1þ  ðt  t Þ ð15Þ
 # U L F 0 fF RL
þ fi a
 Aa U L gN
_ P
mC ðF R U L ÞAa N
ðF R U L ÞN ¼ 1 1 ð7Þ
NAa _ P
mC
5.3. SAH with air leaking out
Thus, for N irradiated collectors connected in series, the useful
The useful energy from such a single irradiated SAH/SAC can be
energy output, QUN,
obtained by;

Aa Aa 
Q_ UN ¼ NAS K ατ fF R ðατÞn gN G  ðF R U L ÞN ðt f i  t a Þ ð8Þ Aa    Aa
Ag Ag Q_ U ¼ AS K ατ F RL ðατÞn G  ðF  R U L Þðt f i  t a Þ ð16Þ
Ag Ag

The useful energy output of a solar collector array consisting of

M rows of N collectors connected in series is given by;
2 8 9N 3
_L
_ P 1m
mC <  =
  m_ 6 F


U L Aa
 7
ðF RL U L ÞN ¼ 41  1  RL
i
Aa Aa 5
Q_ UMN ¼ MNAS K ατ fF R ðατÞn gN G  ðF R U L ÞN ðt f i t a Þ ð9Þ NAa : _
mC P 1  m_ im_L ;
Ag Ag

  
ULF 0 m_L
 1  exp In 1  ð17Þ
m_ LCP m_i
5.2. SAH with air leaking in 
(Here, F RL is used for air leaks out)
Now, for two collectors connected in series, Eq. (17) can be
The design of conventional SAHs with a fact that they can be modified to
operated with a significant pressure difference between the 8 9
heated air stream and Tamb, suggests that a significant amount of < 
F RL U L Aa =
 
ðF RL U L Þ2 ¼ ðF RL U L Þ 1 
 ð18Þ
the air may leak into or out of them. For a constant leakage rate : 1  mL ;
_
_
2mC
P _i
m
along the length of a SAC, the HWB (Hottel–Whiller–Bliss) equa-
tion modifies to

  Eqs. (17) and (18) can again be generalized to any number (say ‘N’)
Aa þ Aa þ _ P 1
mC 1
Q_ U ¼ AS K ατ F RL ðατÞn G  F RL UL 1 þ 0 þ ðt f i  t a Þ of identical collectors in series as;
Ag Ag Aa U L F F RL

2 8 9N 3
ð10Þ _ P 1m_L
<

mC mi 6
_ F RL U L Aa = 7

ðF RL U L ÞN ¼ 41  1 
 5 ð19Þ
þ NAa : _
mC 1  mL ;
_
Where the heat removal factor FRL (here, F RL is for air leaks in) is P _i
m
given by;
2
_L
8 93

½ðF RL ðατÞn ÞmC
_ P 1m < 
U L Aa =5
2
 3( * !+) ½ðF RL ðατÞn ÞN ¼
 _
m i
4 1 1
F RL


  1þm
_L  
þ _
mC P 4 _
m
5 F 0 Aa U L 1 ðF RL U L ÞNAa : _ P 1m
mC
_L ;
F RL ¼
i
 1  exp 1þ In m_
_ LCP
i
_ P _L
Aa U L 1 þ AmC m 1þm_i
aU F
0
L
m ð20Þ
ð11Þ The useful energy output for ‘N’ irradiated solar collectors
(where, Aa – area of absorber). connected in series, QUN, and that of a solar collector array
882 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890

consisting of ‘M’ rows of ‘N’ identical collectors connected in series, geometrical properties. One of the major parameters which affect
QUMN, are then given by; the performance of a SAH is its tilt angle with the horizontal [266–

 268]. It is obvious that the variation in tilt angle affects the amount
Aa  Aa 
Q_ UN ¼ NAg K ατ fF RL ðατÞn gN G  fF RL U L gN ðt f i  t a Þ ð21Þ of solar radiation getting by solar collector and therefore on thermal
Ag Ag
performance of solar system. In this concern, many theoretical
analyses have been carried out and a good number of mathematical

 models have been developed to calculate the optimum angle on the
Aa  Aa 
Q_ UMN ¼ MNAg K ατ fF RL ðατÞn gN G  fF RL U L gN ðt f i  t a Þ ð22Þ earth’s surface at various locations such as; China [267], Turkey
Ag Ag
[269], Hong Kong [270], India [271], Israel [272], Greece [273], Iran
[274], and Saudi Arabia [275]. The performance of a solar FPC also
depends mainly on its tilt angle with the horizontal. It is commonly
5.4. Exergy analysis known that in the northern hemisphere the optimum collector
orientation is south facing (γ ¼0) and the optimum tilt depends
The exergy analysis for a SAH can be carried out by using [263– upon the latitude and the solar declination [12]. Most of the
265] the following equations and with the help of some necessary researchers have given the optimum tilt angle as βopt ¼ φ 715o in
assumptions as follows; the northern hemisphere. While some have been estimated for
1. Steady state, steady flow operation, 2. Negligible potential maximum annual energy availability, the slope of the collector
and kinetic energy effects, 3. An ideal gas (the air) with a constant should be equal to the angle of latitude for low latitude countries
specific heat, 4. The directions of heat transfer to the system and (φ r30o), increasing the latitude by 10o for higher latitude countries
work transfer from the system are positive. (φ 430o). Apart this, a number of investigations have been carried
The mass balance equation can be written as; out to estimate the optimum tilt angle for solar FPC’s. Some of these
_ in ¼ ∑m
∑m _ out ð23Þ are, for example, φ þ101, φ þ 15o, φ þ20o and φ–101 or φ–151,
whereas some researchers suggest two values for the tilt angle, one
for summer and the other for winter, such as φ 7201, φ 781 and
The general energy and exergy balances can be expressed (the
effects due to the kinetic and potential energy changes are
φ 751, where φ is the latitude, ‘þ’ for winter, and ‘–’ for summer
[269–276]. The common approach used by most researchers of the
neglected)
field is to calculate tilt angle (from horizontal surface) which
∑E_ in ¼ ∑E_ out ð24Þ maximizes the amount of solar radiation received by solar collector.
Badescu [276] has been made calculations (performed) by using
actinometric and thermal data measured at Bucarest, Romania,
∑Ex _ out ¼ ∑Ex
_ in ∑Ex _ dest ð25Þ shown that SAH performances are strongly dependent on tilt and
orientation.
Apart this, some authors has also been studied the significant effect
Ex _ work þ Ex
_ dest  ExX _ mass;in  Ex
_ mass;out ¼ Ex
_ dest ð26Þ of inclination angles on the heat transfer process through the solar
thermal systems at the various location of the globe such as; in Japan
Using eq. (26), the rate form of the general exergy balance can be [277,278], Canada [279,280], Taiwan [281,282], United States [283],
expressed as follows; Mexico [284,285], Espana [286], etc. In which, Ozoe et al. [277] had
  been determined the experimental and numerical values for the Nu
Te _ _ þ ∑m _ dest
∑ 1 Qs W _ in ψ in ¼ Ex ð27Þ for natural convection in an inclined, square shape channel maintained
Ts at constant temperature on one inclined side and at a lower
temperature on the opposite side. The maximum value of ‘h’ was
The changes in the enthalpy and the entropy of the air at the found around 50o from the horizontal. The rate of convection was
collector can be obtained by; increased relative to either heating from below or through the side
Δh ¼ ℏout ℏin ¼ C p ðT f ;out  T f ;in Þ ð28Þ walls by rotating the channel to an intermediate inclination. The value
of ‘h’ was observed experimentally to go through a minimum when
Δs ¼ sout  sin ¼ C p InðT f ;out =T f ;in Þ  RInðP out =P in Þ ð29Þ the heating and cooling surfaces were inclined about 101 from the
horizontal. Therefore, the rate of convection was decreased slightly by
The exergy destruction or the irreversibility is expressed by rotating the channel about its axis. Later on, Ozoe et al. [278] had been
_ _ investigated the effect of inclination and the aspect ratio (AR) on the
Exdest ¼ T e Sgen ð30Þ
rates of laminar natural convection heat transfer (NCHT) in silicone oil
The second law ‘η’ of a SAH can be calculated by and on the air inside long rectangular channel. The AR of the cross-
_
Ex _ out  ℏin  T e ðsout  sin Þ
m½ℏ section of the channel was varied for a range of 1, 2, 3, 4  2, 8  4 and
ηII ¼ _ out ¼    ð31Þ 15  5, and the Rayleigh number (Ra) from 3  103 to 105. The channel
Exin 1  T e =T s Q_ s
was heated and cooled only from the below and above inside the
The dimensionless exergy destruction by the energy gain can channel. The channel was then revolved around the long axis in steps
be estimated by through 180o. A minimum to maximum rate of heat transfer was
_ dest =Q_ C achieved at an inclined angle from 01 to 1801. The angle of inclination
EX D ¼ EX ð32Þ
at these critical conditions has been found a strong function of the AR
and a weak function of the Ra. A transition in the circulation mode
5.5. Optimum tilt angle occurred at the angle corresponding to the minimum ‘h’. Hollands
et al. [279] had been performed some experimental measurements on
A FP-SAH absorbs solar energy and transfer the absorbed energy NCHT rates through some inclined air layers of high AR. The basic
into air with a minimum of heat loss. While assessing performance theory was explained through the conductive regime, immediate- post
of an FPC, it is important to determine its ability to absorb solar conductive regime and high Ra regime. An expected correlation had
energy and to characterize its heat losses. The ability of an FPC to been developed between the Ra and the β, which was found to be
absorb solar radiation is largely determined by its optical and applicable on all the three regimes. The Ra had covered a range from
 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890
subcritical to 105; the range of ‘β’ measured from the horizontal was:
0o β o  70o. It was concluded that the developed equation was
appropriate to estimate the value Nu for natural convective heat
exchange through the tilted air layers of high AR (i.e., 0o β o60o and
0oRa o105). El Sherbiny et al. [280] had been presented experi-
mental and theoretical calculations for NCHT across inclined air layers
(heated from below) and bounded by one V-corrugated channel and
one FP. The measurements covered three values for the AR (i.e., AR¼ 1,
2.5 and 4), by covering four different angles of inclination with respect
to the horizontal (i.e., β ¼ 0o, 30o, 45o and 60o), and a range in Ra of
10oRao4  106. It was concluded that the NCHT results better for V-
corrugated plated in comparison of plane air layers or the FP
absorbers.
Soong et al. [281] had been numerically investigated the natural
convection, the associated mode-transition and hysteresis phenom-
enon in a 2D differentially heated inclined enclosure. Unsteady
Navier–Stokes equation was used for governing the fluid flow and
heat transfer rate for the system. The value of Ra has been observed;
1  103 rRar2  104 in steady flow regime, while the angles of
inclination of 01 ⩽ β ⩽ 901 were considered for the computations. A
hysteresis phenomenon has been shown for Ra ⩾ 2000. Experi-
ments were conducted on different value of the AR. The AR¼4 was
found the best among them. More physical insight into the natural
convection in enclosures was presented in detail in the article.
Tzeng et al. [282] had been investigated the natural convection,
associated mode-transition and a hysteresis phenomenon in a 2D
differentially heated tilting enclosure. Unsteady Navier–Stokes
equations were solved for the fluid flow and heat transfer. The
objective of the study was to find out the major concerns and the
effects of inclination on flow mode transition for different values of
the AR. The results showed the heat transfer characteristics and the
Nu variations in the flow mode transition. Ra was considered in
steady flow regime (i.e., 1  103  o Ra  o 2  104) with the
angles of inclination at 01o β o901 in the present case. It was
concluded that the unsteady numerical solutions were useful to
identify the critical mechanism involved in the time dependent
flow and heat transfer behavior of linking of two adjacent flow
modes. Rahman and Sharif [283] had been conducted numerical
investigations for natural convective laminar fluid flow at various
angles of inclination inside rectangular enclosures of different AR. In
the present study, Ra was estimated to observe the effect because of
differential heating of the side walls (external Ra) and the strength
of the internal heat generation (internal Ra). It has been concluded
that the value tilt angles influence the upstream regions on the
isothermal walls. Apart this, by introducing a uniform internal heat
generation, there was an increment on the local heat flux ratio
along the hot wall, while decreasing it along the cold wall. The
nature of the variation of heat flux along the length of the
isothermal walls was found similar in both cases.
Alvarado et al. [284] had been carried out some numerical
investigations on interaction between natural convection and surface
thermal radiation in an inclined slender cavity. The bottom and top
surfaces of the cavity were heated and cooled at a fixed temperature
and the sidewalls were insulated. The studied parameters such as; Ra
was observed for a range of 104 rRar106 on the varying AR for a
range of 8rARr16. The values of Ra were observed on
15o r β Z 35o. It was concluded that the total heat transfer
increased with increased value of β and decreased when the value
of AR increases. Alvarado et al. [285] had been studied a double-
diffusive natural convection and surface thermal radiation in an
inclined cavity simulating a solar still. Ra was considered for a range
of 103 rRaT (RaM)r106 (for mass and thermal radiation, respec-
tively) and the AR was considered for range of 8rARr16 for
151r β r351 of inclination angles. It was concluded that the m _ of
distillate increases as AR, Ra and β increase and the Nu or Ra
increases with lower values of AR. The most favorable condition for
883
the present solar still was observed as Ra¼ 106, AR¼ 16 and β Z251.
Bairi et al. [286] had been experimentally and theoretically investi-
gated the steady-state natural convection in the hemispherical air-
filled cavities (cupola). The cavity was fashioned for 01r β r901 in a
step of 151. The circular base of the cupola was the hot active wall
subjected to a fixed heat flux. The Ra was observed for a range of 104
to 5  107. The developed correlations were suitable to apply on
engineering fields such as; in lighting, in solar energy applications or
in buildings.
5.6. f-chart analysis
The f-chart method [287,289] provides a means to estimate the
fraction of the overall heating load that will have to be supplied by
solar energy for a given solar heating system (SHS). The primary
design variable is a solar collector and secondary variables are
collector type, storage capacity, fluid flow rate, and load size. The
f-chart analysis is a correlation of the results of many hundreds of
thermal performance simulations of SHSs. In a manner identical to
that used to develop the f-chart for liquid-based SAHS, the fraction
(f) of the monthly total heating load (L) supplied by solar energy
(I) calculated by simulation model can be correlated for the two
dimensionless groups X and Y. While, the correlation can be
determined for a SAHS by a least squares fit to the simulation
results given in equation 35.
 
X ¼ AF R U L ðT ref  T a Þ =L ð33Þ
Y ¼ ½AF R ðτα ÞS=L ð34Þ
(Where, Tref is a reference temperature chosen to be 100 1C)
f ¼ 1:040Y  0:065X  0:159Y 2 þ 0:00187X 2  0:0095Y 3 ð35Þ
5.7. Software modeling and simulation
In the present era, there are many simulations programs are
available to determine interactions between passive design feature
and other conservation measures for solar systems. The computer
machines which are very advanced now have the capability to
incorporate the many correlations needed to estimate heating
energy use of buildings along with code to simplify information
input/output [290]. There are various software tools based on long
experience and applications in area of process integration, modeling
and optimization. The development of supporting software tools can
be categorized as; (i) process integration and retrofit analysis tools,
(ii) general mathematical modeling suites with optimization
libraries, (iii) flow sheeting simulation and (iv) graph-based process
optimization tools. Apart this, these tools enable the generation of
new sustainable alternatives to adapt to future needs. They deal
with various aspects of solar or non-solar systems from energy
consumption to production cost constraints. The prominence of
sustainability process design tools is largely on the valuation of
process viability under sustainable economic conditions, synthesis of
sustainable process and supply chain process preservation and LCA
[291]. Some of the commonly used software tools [292–299] used
for simulation of SAHS have been presented in Table 8, with a brief.
There are many educational software programs have been devel-
oped to study the transient behavior of an active solar heating
system. The users can explore various cases, study what happens
under different operating scenarios and examine the effects of
steady-state or transient conditions. Simulation processes are used
when a more quantitative understanding of the related subjects is
needed, as they offer higher perceptual fidelity. The simulation
accounts for a large number of parameters can be used to investigate
their effects on the ηtherm of the solar collector and system. Some of
the commonly used software for solar heating systems (building and
884 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890

district heating) are as; BALMOREL, EnergyPLAN, energyPRO, 9Invert,
LEAP, PERSEUS, RAMSES, RETScreen, SIVAEL, WATSUN, POLYSUN,
MATLAB-Simulink, SOLTHERM, EnergyPLAN, EnergyPlus, SOLRGT,
COMSOL and spreadsheets etc. [291,298–303].
6. Benefits
Biomass and coal are the major energy sources used for space
heating in developing countries and normally accounting around 50%
of all energy consumption in those countries. Although, electric
heating is relatively convenient, but its production from fossil fuels is
very expensive, which results in air pollution in the atmosphere [304].
Besides this, by using fossil fuels or other alternative fuels for room/
space heating (e.g., biomass) through combustion there is a risk of fire
accidents or burns [305]. But, by using these solar types heating
systems one can not only reduced the amount of pollution, but also
saves the other conventional fuels generally used for space heating
and reduced monthly electricity bills (if electrical room heaters are
used for room heating) [306,307]. Apart this, while using solar energy
systems, there is negligible chance of accidents as well as respiratory
illness because of biomass burning. By using this energy, one can not
only save the energy in terms of conventional fuels, but also keep a
good health and a healthy environment [308]. A detailed analysis of
annual savings of the fuel wood, light diesel oil, coal, natural gas and
electricity has presented for a solar dryer integrated with a SAH [309].
Apart this, a space heating system could be a local or central
SHS with different energy potentials. For a local system, gas stoves
or different types of electric heaters are available. While, in the
central SHS, user has a choice between high-efficiency and con-
densing boilers (that perform on natural gas or fuel, or an
electrically driven heat pump). The heat is assumed to be dis-
tributed into the rooms through insulated pipes and is emitted by
radiators with or without a rear radiation shield [310]. The benefits
ascending from the installation and operation of SAHS can be

Table 8
Commonly used softwares for solar thermal systems.

Softwares Key features

TRNSYS Transisent Systems simulation Program is for analysis and modeling of both solar and non-solar transient thermal systems. Solar energy systems
[281,282] demonstrate a nonlinear dependence upon the weather on both short (short) and long (seasonal) time scales. Simulations on the TRNSYS offer the only
applied means of optimizing the design of solar energy systems. It is an integrated program designed for easy assemblage of the sub-routines expressive
system mechanisms into a dominant program representing the system. This program handles the equation’s solving and book storing chores. Formulation
of the components has to be in accordance with the required TRNSYS format. A basic standard in TRNSYS is the specification of parameters and,
inputs and outputs for each component. Parameters for constant values which are used to model a component are also in the programme
(e.g., parameters for a SAH such as length, depth and width). Inputs are time-dependent variables that can come from a user supplied data source
such as weather data. A simulation ‘Summarizer’ outputs integrated energy measures of solar energy collected or supplied to the load, auxiliary
energy used, losses from storage, or other needed data.
EES [283,284] EES is the shortening for Engineering Equation Solver. EES is an equation-solver, rather than a programming language, since it does not need the user to
enter commands for iteratively solving nonlinear equations. EES provides competence for unit checking of equations, parametric studies, optimization,
uncertainty analyses, and high-quality plots. It provides array variables that can be used in finite-difference calculations as well as accurated
thermodynamic and transport property functions for many fluids and solid materials (integrated with the equations). The combination of all of these
abilities in one program styles EES a very dominant tool for solving heat transfer problems. EES has the capability to do two things; it can solve
equations, regardless of the order that they are entered and it can consign not only values but also units for all variable in the problem. Besides this,
all of the variables used in the problem statement and solution should have the appropriate base SI unit. It is not necessary to do any unit
conversions as you work the problem. Once the problem has solved, then one can convert the solution to whatever units are most appropriate.
TnSOL [285] It is a dynamic simulation program for complete analysis of solar thermal systems and their modules. The program supports users to optimize the
components and units of a solar system. TnSOL can be used for monitoring with actual measurement data. The automatic factor variable can be carried
out with TnSOL. The simulation computes the effect of parameters on a target value. These include the ‘I’, ‘ηtherm’, and external energy requirements.
In this trend, the single parameters of a component can optimize for many operating modes of a solar system. It simulates solar systems with the real
extent values of the input variables and can link the result with the actual system yield. By using data import, one can edit, evaluate, and convert the
measurement data to the TnSOL format. All the energy flows in the system can be calculated, output to a table, and presented as a flow chart. A solar
local district heating module can be used to simulate and design local district SHS supported with nine variable systems. This tool enables to display the
key system variants with regard to the network structure, the consumption system in adjacent buildings, and the integration of the solar system in the
local region. These results are displayed in one-minute resolution. It offers extremely accurate basis to plan, design, and to monitor the ideal solar
systems.
TRANSOL [286] Transol is a tool for design, calculation and optimization of solar thermal systems. The software makes dynamic simulation easy (TRNSYS engine)
through a user-friendly interface. For practical purposes, most of the solar thermal installations are sized according to the known f-Chart method, for
practical reasons, economic and historical. TRANSOL is also based on TRNSYS models of systems, but instead of a single configuration, as in the case of
f-Chart, includes about 40 different systems, allowing more than 140 system variations. As a simple example, the graph compares the solar fraction of
the three previous configurations according to TRANSOL as well as f-Chart (First column – f-Chart, following columns – each different system in
TRANSOL: SCH_CEN- Centralized, SCH_DC - Decentralized, SCH_SC – Semi-centralized).
WINTHERM It provides a component-level transient and steady-state thermal simulation. Because the graphical user interface of WinTherm guides through the
[287] heat transfer (radiation, conduction, and convection) simulation process, engineers and students from a technical background can analyze the thermal
behavior of components and small systems quickly and accurately. WinTherm predicts the full temperature distribution of the system and delivers heat
rates for radiation, conduction, and convection. The purpose of WinTherm is to perform either conceptual design analysis or detailed heat transfer
analysis. This program provides the capability to construct thermal models very easily through the use of graphical components built into the user
interface. The user can perform a full parametric sweep of their component level heat transfer design or their complete system (HVAC) with WinTherm
and much faster than any other software thermal management tool. WinTherm uses C/C þ þ for the programming language, OpenGL for the graphics,
and Qt for the cross platform tool.
RadTherm Radtherm is a professional thermal simulation tool for comprehensive CAE analysis. If, the system is in steady state, then the transient heat transfer
[288] behavior can be predicted by RadTherm. Equipped with a complete temperature distribution and heat rates for radiation, conduction and convection
(RCC), one can maximize engineering options in early stages of development or validate a final product design. It is a professional thermal modeling
program that predicts the full temperature distribution of the solar thermal system. From these results, one can modify the system and test the
system’s response to the change (e.g., active and passive heating techniques can be tested for cost-benefit analysis). RadTherm solve the problem for
RCC under both steady-state and transient conditions. RadTherm is equipped with everything but CAD mesh: pre-processing for conductivity and mesh
normals, boundary condition set up, an optimized thermal solver, and post processor or results viewer. With minimal effort one can analyze
conduction, multibounce radiation, and convection (steady-state or transient) under realistic indoor environments. It’s highly-optimized algorithms
handle even the most complex heat transfer questions. Written in portable C þ þ, it maintains speed and file compatibility across platforms. A state-of-
the-art voxel-based ray tracer is used to compute radiation view factors and solar projected (apparent) areas.
 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890 885

distinguished into two major categories; energy saving in the form
of fuels and decrease of environmental pollution. The energy
saving benefit derives from the reduction in consumption of
electricity, especially in the case of space heating (generally an
air heater or blower is used for space heating). Solar energy
technologies present tremendous environmental benefits in com-
parison of conventional energy sources. In other words, solar
energy is considered as an almost total clean and safe energy
source [311–313]. Apart this, there are certain more advantages of
SAHs such as; perform on the free fuel from the sun, no freezing
problem, no internal corrosion problem with dry air, leaks of
smaller consequences, no heat exchanger between collector sto-
rage and storage building loops, no boiling or pressure problems,
easy for do-it-yourselfers, simple and reliable, low running and
maintenance cost, short payback period etc.
7. Conclusion
The solar collectors are classified into liquid (water) and the air
heating systems. The liquid collectors suffer from the possibility of
freezing of water as a heat transfer fluid in cold climates, leakage of
fluid and corrosion. For the air as a fluid, leakage, corrosion and
freezing are not represented as major problems in SAHs. No boiling
or pressure problems occur, while using SAHs. They are simple in
construction and do not need a high technology for their main-
tenance or repair. However, the air as a heat transfer fluid suffers
from its low heat capacity and poor heat transfer from the absorber
to the flowing air. Therefore, many attempts were performed to
overcome this problem by using high mass flow rates and using
extended surfaces to increase the heat transfer area and hence the
heat transfer rate to the flowing air. In other designs of SAHs, the
absorber plate may have the form of matrices structure, where the
cold air flows through the voids of the matrix to extract the heat
from the matrix absorber. The present manuscript revaled that
flowing of the air above the heater absorber is not recommended
because it increases the convection losses from the glazing; there-
fore, selective coating can be applied to improve the SAH efficiency.
The artificial surface roughness provided on the duct of SAHs; such
as fins, ribs, baffles, etc leads to heat transfer augmentation and
better thermo-hydrolic performance. Artificial roughness effectively
increase the exhust temperature and ηtherm in comparison to a
conventional SAH. Beside this, recirculation flow further enhances
the convection heat transfer; however, ΔP should be minimized to
reduce the amount of pumping power needed for recirculation of
the flowing air. It is also indicated that multiple-pass SAHs perform
better for low flow rates and large plate lengths.
One of the most important potential applications of SAHs is the
solar drying of agricultural products. Since the SAH is an essential
component of the indirect type solar dryer, improvement of the SAH
would lead to the quality performance of the drying system. There-
fore; more investigations and improvement in the thermal perfor-
mance of the double pass flat, V-corrugated and finned plate SAHs is
still needed. Incorporation of SHS or LHS material in the SHSs improve
the system’s performance during the poor ambient conditions and
avoid to use a auxiliary heat sources during low solar radiation. The
latent storage media is preferable compared to the SHS media to
achieve the nearly constant exhaust air temperature during the day as
well as overnight. However, the PCMs should be investigated in view
of their chemical stability and compatibility with the containing
materials before their integration within the SAHS.
Furthermore, before using the SAHS on a large scale, computer
simulation models must be performed to simulate the short and
long term performance of the systems. Simulations provide the
only practical means of optimizing the design of SHSs. Therefore,
the present paper summarized the theoretical methods that were
employed in predicting the SAHs performance. On the other hand,
some of the commonly used software for predicting the SHSs
performance were reviewed. It is shown that all software and
simulation models could be used efficiently in evaluating tem-
perature distribution and the thermo-hydraulic performance of
SAHs. The WinTherm that uses C/C þ þ for the programming
language, OpenGL for the graphics, and Qt for the cross platform
tool seems to be much faster than any other software thermal
management tool. It can be run under Microsoft Windows and
UNIX systems.
The various models that were used for economic analysis of
SAHs as a criterion, not only for deciding whether to build a solar
energy system, but also for optimizing their design were discussed.
The double cover, three pass SAH with the air flow from top to
bottom was observed to be more cost-effective than the single
cover, three pass SAH with the air flow from bottom to top. For
lower mass flow rates and shorter duct lengths, the single cover,
two pass SAH was the most cost effective. By using these solar types
heating systems one can not only reduced the amount of pollution
in the environment, but also saves the other conventional fuels
generally used for space heating as well as reduced the monthly
electricity bills (if electrical room heaters are used for room
heating). Solar energy technologies present tremendous environ-
mental benefits in comparison of conventional energy sources.
In addition to not exhausting natural resources, their main advan-
tage is the absence of almost any air emissions (pollutants) or waste
products. In other words, solar energy is considered as an almost
total clean and safe energy source. By using solar energy, one can
not only save the energy in terms of conventional fuels, but also
keep a healthy environment. Overll, after thoroughly reviewing the
available research reports and articles on SAHs, a few recommenda-
tions can be made (Table 9) as follows;

Table 9
Recommendations for designing a solar air heater.

Sr. no Factors Recommendations

1. Design ASHRAE, 93-77 standard ‘Methods of testing to determine the thermal performance of solar air heater’
2. Heat transfer augumentation By extended surfaces (recommendations:- fins and ribs on the ducts)
3. Efficiency 50% 4 for space heating and 40% 4for crop drying (recommended) [if, efficiency is low then it does
not mean that the system can not perform, above are recommended values on the basis of literature review)
4. Thermal energy Paraffin wax for latent heat storage and granular carbon as sensible heat storage. While, a thin blackened
storage (selective black-painted surface) sheet of Tin/Al made must be use as solar collector/absorber for a simple design
5. Type Double pass and single glazed type SAH
6. Modelling software TRNSYS and EES
7. Position and installation Postioned towards south at ϕ7 15o, and should be installed on the rooptop and on the ground
for space heating and for drying, respectively
8. Operating conditions Use a quality TES in good sunshine hours and turned the system on auxiliary power in poor ambient conditions
(recommendation: use PV power for green environment). Keep the glazing and absorber dust free for efficient performance
9. Applications Space heating, solar drying, and timber seasoning etc.
886 A. Saxena et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015) 863–890
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 Renewable Energy 97 (2016) 722e730

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Experimental investigation of concentrated solar air-heater with

internal multiple-fin array
Magdalena Nem
s*, Jacek Kasperski
Wroclaw University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Wybrzeze Wyspianskiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents the results of experimental validation of energy conversion in a concentrated solar
Received 30 January 2016 air-heater with internal multiple-fin array. A novel high temperature solar air heater was proposed to
Received in revised form convert solar energy to heat for space heating in climatic conditions of Poland.
25 May 2016
The aim of the study was to verify the previously created mathematical model of heat transfer pro-
Accepted 14 June 2016
cesses. The collector’s performance was analysed experimentally against the reduced temperature dif-
Available online 20 June 2016
ference. During the experiments, an electrical air heater was used to change the air temperature at the
inlet of the receiver according to the test demands. Additionally, two daily performance evaluation tests
Keywords:
Solar air heater
were done. During the tests the all-day measured data was collected automatically and recorded at 1-
Parabolic concentrator min intervals. Hourly and daily thermal efficiency was calculated. Validation of the model showed its
Thermal efficiency correctness and proved that the model can be accepted.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction with a collector with a flat absorber. Another type of action is

At present, a wide range of scientific research worldwide con-
cerns issues connected with renewable energy sources including
solar collectors. It is the result of widespread green actions
involving both industry as well as constructing single-family de-
tached houses. Most research is devoted to flat plate collectors in
which the working substance is water or glycol. Air collectors are
less frequently studied, mainly due to lower efficiency of energy
conversion, obtained temperatures and possibility of application of
heat storage containers in case of liquid installations. Flat plate air
collectors are most commonly applied in drying installations. The
conducted research concerns, inter alia, the influence of using
cheap materials such as, for example, plastic bubble wrap as insu-
lation [1], modification of absorbents’ shapes and flows [2,3] and
the influence of alternative solar solutions on the process’ efficiency
[4] and its evaluation [5].
The mentioned low efficiency of air collectors is the basis for
designing constructions which enlarge the agent’s twirling and
heat exchange surface by, for instance, using fins. Even the use of a
constructionally simple absorber which is undulated with a zigzag
shape [6] allows to achieve higher air temperature in comparison
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: magdalena.nems@pwr.edu.pl (M. Nem
s).
mounting additional elements in the form of fins assembled at an
angle on the surface of a flat absorber [7].
Most commonly, the operational medium in concentrating solar
collectors is oil, glycol, water or other liquids. The collectors
themselves are used in electricity production installations and for
industrial processes [8], to support the processes of desalination
[9], in solar thermochemical hydrogen production [10], or in simple
solar cookers [11].
Concentrating solar air collectors are not very common. There
are only few scientific papers concerning concentrating solar col-
lectors applied for air heating. Madessa et al. [12] concerned a
concentrating parabolic dish, which heated the sucked up ambient
air up to even 300
C. Various air flows and two different absorbers
were researched. The first of them was of honeycomb construction
and the flow of 4 m/s reached the efficiency of 0.60. However, the
absorber filled with fibrous wire mesh with the same flow reached
0.81. Additionally, Togrul et al. research on an air collector with a
conical concentrator [13,14] is known. A pipe absorber covered with
black paint, and then another, with selective coating, were tested.
First tests [13] were carried out in conditions of natural convection.
The process efficiency for the absorber covered with black paint
was maximally 0.12, and the highest air temperature on the outlet
was 150
C. The results for the absorber with selective coating were
only slightly better. Consecutive tests in the same set-up [14] were
carried out for the air speed of approximately 6 m/s. For the first of

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2016.06.038
0960-1481/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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s, J. Kasperski / Renewable Energy 97 (2016) 722e730 723

14 folds in the absorber covered with black paint the process effi-
Nomenclature ciency was 0.80, whereas for the absorber with selective coating it
was 0.84. Also Zheng et al. [15] has conducted an experimental test
A area, m2 of a novel multi-surface trough solar concentrator. They tested
Cp specific heat of air, J/kg K three receivers with different geometry of air flow channels, filled
I irradiation, W/m2 with black thin wire mesh. The variable parameter was the air flow
L length, m rate. The test showed that daily average efficiency can reach about
T temperature, K (or
C) 0.6 at a certain air flow rate. The highest reached temperature can
U extended uncertainties, e be over 140
C. Jamal-Abad et al. [16] investigated heat transfer in
V volumetric flux, m3/s tubular solar air-heater filled with a porous medium. The results
W width, m showed that the collector heat removal factor enhances when the
porous media shape parameter increases.
Subscripts Other researchers [17] conducted experimental and simulation
amb ambient studies of a system made from 10 linked compound parabolic
ap aperture concentrators with a U-shaped copper tube heat exchanger
b beam (radiation) on sloped collector front installed inside. During a sunny day, with air volume flow rate
c combined between 6.8 and 7.1 m3/h, the temperature of the air at the outlet
d daily or diffused (radiation) was over 200
C. The efficiency of the tested system was up to 0.5.
in inlet Nitrogen instead of air was used to do research on the influence of
m model the flow change of a working medium on the efficiency of a linear
out outlet concentrating collector by Li et al. [18]. Subsequent research with
t thermal or total (radiation) nitrogen as a working medium was conducted with the use of an
absorber of a small diameter. Its stagnation temperature was
Greek symbols 600
C. The highest outlet temperature of nitrogen was 463
C for
d deviation, % the flow of 0.0012 kg/s with the efficiency of 0.28. The highest ef-
r density of air, kg/m3 ficiency, 0.44, was achieved for the flow of 0.0023 kg/s and outlet
h efficiency, e temperature of 358
C.
The efficiency in concentrating collectors is enhanced by
enlarging the heat exchange surface inside the absorber. One of the
the absorbers (with paint) the process efficiency was 0.50, whereas methods is to use wire mesh, as was done in the abovementioned
for the second one it was 0.53. Afterwards, wire mesh with various solutions: [15], [12] [14], and [16]. Another way is to apply fins on or
number of folds in the packing was inserted into the absorbers. For inside the absorber, which can be seen in case of the following

Fig. 1. Absorber with internal multiple-fin array.

724 M. Nem
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constructions: [19e22]. Each of them has proven the increase of

efficiency in comparison to the variant without the fins. However,
none of these solutions involved a collector with air as the working
medium.
The authors of this article have proposed a new constructional
solution for an air linear absorber in a concentrating collector. The
analytical model of the designed collector was shown in detail in
Ref. [23]. Absorber is characterized by a strongly developed internal
heat exchange surface. It is caused by the need of reaching a high
outlet temperature of the working medium in local climate con-
ditions, where the number of sunny hours outside the summer
season is low. The solar concentrating collector’s ultimate purpose
is to perform the function of the air heater in the conceptual
heating system with long term thermal storage. The article aims at
the experimental verification of the previously developed mathe-
matical model, so that in the future it is possible to adjust the pa-
rameters of the collector, depending on the heating demand of the
building.

2. Technical data of solar collector

In order to verify the developed thermo-hydraulic concentrating

collector, the authors have designed and built a prototype parabolic
trough collector. An aluminium cylinder was adopted for an air
heater, which was internally finned with the use of regular rect-
angular fins. The fins are intended to facilitate heat transfer with
the air flux. The heat is transferred from a solar radiated external
surface. The cylinder was finned in a rectangular manner at both
sides (see Fig. 1). Both parts of the receiver were sealed and bolted
together. A polymethyl (PMMA) plate layered with high quality
aluminium was used for the concentrating mirror. The plate was
fitted to a purpose-built mobile frame. Parabolic profiles e ac-
commodating optical requirements of the concentrating mirror e
were then cut with a laser-cutting machine.
The external surface of the receiver cylinder was covered with
black paint. The prepared receiver was than enclosed in a borosil- Fig. 2. Solar receiver with a double-wall glass pipe mounted to a parabolic
concentrator.
icate double glass vacuum envelope. After the pressure less than
200 Pa was achieved, the evacuation probe pipe was welded. Thus,
real vacuum pressure of the envelope is unknown after that tech-
nology operation. Each end of the glass cover was fitted with pol-
ytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) mounting rings to minimize heat loss
(Fig. 2). The collector was mounted on the tracker head to allow the
mirror to rotate and track solar radiation. During the experiments
the solar collector was manually directed towards the sun position
with a precision gear use.
Collector and tracker head modules were mounted on a mobile
metal frame (see Fig. 3). A detailed technical data sheet for the solar
collector is presented in Table 1. Optical parameters of glass and
PTFE were taken from technical data sheet of producers. Property of
paint cover was assumed as typical for similar products. Optical
efficiency of the concentrator was measured experimentally.

3. Experimental investigation

The scheme of the experimental setup is illustrated in Fig. 4.

Parabolic concentrator PC reflects beam irradiation directly to
absorber tube AB. Ambient air is sucked in by fan F. The fan is
powered by the voltage regulator VR1, enabling air flow rate V
change. The flow rate is measured by flow velocity meter VM at the
air outlet. The air forced by space heating fan F flows through
electric heater EHT with maximum power 1.7 kW powered by
voltage regulator VR2. It enables the temperature of the outlet air
leaving EHT heater to be changed, independently of the ambient
temperature Tamb. The heated air flows near the thermometer,
enabling the measurement of the temperature of inlet air Tin to be Fig. 3. Concentrating solar collector with cylindrical receiver as an air heater.
 M. Nem
s, J. Kasperski / Renewable Energy 97 (2016) 722e730 725

Table 1
Solar collector data.

Collector Medium heated Air

Concentration ratio 19.1
Tracker rotation ability Horizontal & vertical

Concentrator Profile Parabolic

Absorber surrounding angle 180

Optical efficiency 0.90
Transmittance (both directions) 0.90
Reflectivity 0.90
Mirror plate material PMMA, 2 mm
Reflector layer Aluminium (rear side)
Width 1.2 m
Length 0.5 m

Receiver Material Aluminium

Absorption area length 0.5 m
Finned channel length 0.6 m
Cylinder diameter 50 mm
Absorption layer Silicone black paint
Absorptivity 0.90
Emissivity 0.92
Fin thickness 1.5 mm
Fin distance 1.5 mm
Fin height Central 22 mm, side 17 mm

Glass envelope Shape Double-wall pipe

Absolute pressure Less than 200 Pa
Material Borosilicate glass
Transmittance (both pipes together) 0.90
Emissivity 0.88
Internal diameter 55 mm
External diameter 81 mm
Length 0.5 m

Mounting rings Material PTFE

Internal diameter 54 mm
External diameter 90 mm
Length 25 mm

3.1. Measurement and uncertainty analysis

Total and diffused irradiation is measured by two pyranometers

Fig. 4. Scheme of the experimental set-up.
taken. Altering power supply for the EHT heater enables obtaining
the intended temperature of inlet air Tin. The air flows into the
absorber, where it is heated up to the temperature of outlet air Tout,
which is measured by the thermometer at the air outlet from
absorber AB. Voltage of the VR2 regulator is determined experi-
mentally at the temperature of inlet air Tin and air flow flux V.
Portable differential manometer DM was applied to find the pres-
sure drop along the receiver air flow. Probes of the pressure
measured were fixed 5 cm before the inlet and after the outlet of
the receiver fins. The linear flow resistance along the receiver and
local flow resistance at the inlet/outlet were taken into consider-
ation. During the experiments the solar collector was turned to-
wards the sun position angles. Adjustments were done manually
every 5 min.
PRT and PRD respectively. Two Kipp &Zonen pyranometers (first
class) are mounted on the tracker head above the concentrator
frame. Black disc blend is used to cast shade onto pyranometer PRD.
Beam irradiation is calculated as a difference between total and
diffused radiation. The temperature was measured with the use of
thermocouples K-type. All parameters were recorded at 10-s in-
tervals on Lumel KD7 automatic data logger.
The experimental study has been conducted with due metro-
logical care, and then measurement uncertainty was calculated.
The uncertainty of determining the thermal efficiency can be tested
with the analysis of the measuring accuracy of the equipment used.
The analysis of uncertainty for the equipment used in calculation of
such parameters as temperature, volume flux and density of solar
radiation was done according to procedures described in Ref. [24].
For the calculated extended uncertainties coverage factor of 2 was
adopted. Uncertainties, specified by the manufacturers, are shown
in Table 2.
4. Model validation
The described collector was tested according to the EN 12975
Table 2
Acquired uncertainties for the parameters measured.
±DT
C ±DI W/m2 ±DV m3/s ±DW, ±DL mm
0.1 20 1% 2
726 M. Nem
s, J. Kasperski / Renewable Energy 97 (2016) 722e730

Table 3
Experiment results and the model comparison of thermal efficiency tests against the reduced temperature difference.

Experiment Model

Exp. num. It Id Ib Tamb V Tin Tout ht Uc(ht) (Tin-Tamb) /Ib Tout ht.m dht
2 2 2
3

2

W/m W/m W/m C m /s C C e e Km /W C e %

1 1064 56 1008 21.9 0.00434 24.2 79.4 0.420 0.031 0.002 76.1 0.398 5.2
2 1013 82 931 21.6 25.9 72.9 0.389 0.030 0.005 74.2 0.402 3.3
3 1031 49 982 22.3 27.9 79.6 0.401 0.030 0.006 80.3 0.412 2.7
4 1030 101 929 21.8 30.0 76.0 0.378 0.029 0.009 76.7 0.392 3.7
5 1047 70 977 23.1 34.5 87.0 0.401 0.030 0.012 83.8 0.383 4.5
6 1064 63 1001 20.4 38.7 90.1 0.379 0.029 0.018 89.2 0.378 0.3
7 1064 56 1008 22.5 46.8 97.0 0.359 0.027 0.024 99.8 0.382 6.4
8 1088 91 997 19.1 50.9 100.4 0.354 0.027 0.032 100.3 0.357 0.8
9 1078 99 979 21.4 51.3 98.6 0.345 0.026 0.031 100.1 0.359 4.1
10 1063 65 998 22.5 52.4 99.7 0.337 0.026 0.030 102.3 0.355 5.3
11 1080 91 989 23.7 66.2 118.2 0.355 0.027 0.043 113.1 0.329 7.3
12 1047 56 991 20.1 67.1 115.0 0.327 0.025 0.047 114.9 0.328 0.3
13 999 77 922 20.7 70.7 113.4 0.313 0.024 0.054 113.8 0.321 2.6
14 994 78 916 19.6 74.3 115.8 0.302 0.024 0.060 116.3 0.319 5.6
15 1029 58 971 19.7 80.2 124.6 0.298 0.023 0.062 123.7 0.309 3.7
16 1055 56 999 20.2 80.7 130.4 0.321 0.025 0.061 126.1 0.306 4.7
17 1043 97 946 22.1 84.2 127.7 0.296 0.023 0.066 126.3 0.302 2.0
18 1031 56 975 19.8 91.6 135.3 0.281 0.022 0.074 134.1 0.29 3.2
19 1063 64 999 19.7 96.0 141.0 0.277 0.022 0.076 138.9 0.283 2.2
20 1097 98 999 22.3 108.3 154.7 0.272 0.022 0.086 150.1 0.261 4.0
21 1087 78 1009 20.4 119.7 162.9 0.241 0.020 0.098 161.7 0.245 1.7
22 1057 88 969 20.0 119.9 160.6 0.238 0.020 0.103 159.9 0.245 2.9
23 1088 56 1032 19.5 120.0 163.6 0.237 0.019 0.097 162.1 0.249 5.1
24 1051 80 971 20.0 122.9 162.2 0.227 0.019 0.106 158.3 0.239 5.3

(similar to ASHRAE 93-97) standard. Typical hourly values of solar
radiation during summer season achieve a higher value from 10:00
a.m. to 15:00 p.m. as it is expected. On a cloudless day these hours
are selected as the most proper to carry out the efficiency test ac-
cording to the EN 12975 demand, especially that the beam radia-
tion exceeds 800 W/m2. The experimental research was carried out
near Kobierzyce (N 50
580 , E 16
560 ) about 20 km outside the
Wroclaw city in Poland.
sky was almost cloudless. Time of about 25 min was needed to
establish a steady state. The set of 24 experiments were conducted.
The idea of the experiment was to maintain a constant air flux at
0.00434 m3/s value and to change the temperature of air at the inlet
within a wide range available technically using various adjustments
of VR2 regulator. The temperature of the air obtained at the inlet
was between 24.2 and 122.9
C. The calculated reduced tempera-
ture difference is widely and densely arranged within the value
range between 0.002 and 0.106 km2/W.

4.1. Thermal efficiency tests against the reduced temperature V rCp ðTout  Tin Þ
difference ht ¼ (1)
WLIb
The experimental research of thermal efficiency was carried out The calculation of thermal efficiency of the solar collector was
during two days from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. During the tests the taken as the ratio of solar beam radiation power to the power

Fig. 5. Experiment results and the model comparison of thermal efficiency tests against the reduced temperature difference.
 M. Nem
s, J. Kasperski / Renewable Energy 97 (2016) 722e730 727

Table 4
Experiment results and the model comparison of thermal efficiency tests against the air volume flow rate.

Experiment Model

No. It Id Ib Tamb V Tin Tout ht Uc(ht) Tout ht.m dh

2 2 2
3



W/m W/m W/m C m /s C C e e C e %

1 1072 70 1002 20.0 0.0016 28.7 154.6 0.312 0.052 161.1 0.329 5.4
2 1022 63 959 19.7 0.0026 26.7 110.2 0.375 0.042 107.9 0.366 2.4
3 1088 70 1018 18.0 0.0035 27.6 92.0 0.377 0.033 91.3 0.38 0.8
4 1006 70 936 17.1 0.0037 26.7 80.1 0.373 0.031 82.3 0.392 5.1
5 1014 70 944 17.0 0.0043 25.2 74.5 0.402 0.030 74.4 0.398 1.0
6 1047 105 942 16.5 0.0049 25.7 67.5 0.387 0.028 68.1 0.401 3.6
7 1055 105 950 15.9 0.0051 25.3 68.4 0.417 0.029 65.9 0.407 2.4
8 1041 86 955 17.5 0.0060 25.2 60.0 0.398 0.025 60.1 0.408 2.5
9 1039 98 941 17.5 0.0070 25.2 55.3 0.409 0.024 54.9 0.412 0.7
10 1022 105 917 17.5 0.0078 27.0 53.8 0.416 0.024 53.8 0.402 3.4
11 1022 105 917 17.8 0.0081 27.1 52.2 0.408 0.023 52.1 0.413 1.2
12 1014 105 909 16.6 0.0086 29.4 54.1 0.424 0.024 52.3 0.405 4.5

received while heating up the air flux (1). The power consumption
of the air fan was neglected.
Table 3 presents the measured quantities and results of com-
putations done using equations with respect to the inlet tempera-
ture. Thermal efficiencies obtained are from 0.227 to 0.420. The
experimental points are illustrated in Fig. 5 with addition of linear
regression marked with a continuous line. Also columns of mea-
surement uncertainties have been applied on the chart. Linear
regression reveals the efficiency coefficients value h0 ¼ 0.4068 and
h1 ¼ 1.6772.
The comparison of the model calculation results with the
experimental results shows a relatively small deviation between
them. Deviation of thermal efficiency has been calculated with
Equation (2) and does not exceed ±7.3%. Thus, the model can be
considered as quite accurate.
ht  ht:m
dh ¼
ht
sky was almost cloudless. Time of about 25 min was needed to
establish a steady state. The set of 12 experiments were conducted.
The idea of the experiment was to change the air flux value
within a wide range available technically using various adjustments
of VR1 regulator. The air flux was changed from 0.0016 to
0.0086 m3/s. The EHT heater was switched off during the experi-
ments. Table 4 presents the comparison of the experimental results
with the model calculation and shows a relatively small deviation
between them. Deviation does not exceed ±5.4% in terms of ther-
mal efficiency of the collector. The comparison between experi-
mental and analytical results is illustrated in Fig. 6. It is visible that
the model line generally lies within cross error bars. Only the first
point which is corresponding to the lowest value of the air flux lies
outside of the model line. Despite that, the model can be considered
as accurate for the air flux value in the range from 0.002 to 0.01 m3/
s.
(2)
4.3. Daily performance evaluation

The daily average efficiency is the test method to describe

4.2. Thermal efficiency tests against the air volume flow rate thermal performance of a solar thermal collector. Thermal perfor-
mance of solar collectors depends on weather conditions such as
The experimental research on thermal efficiency was carried solar irradiation, ambient temperature and others. The collector
during one day from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. During the tests the was tested two days in summer from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. During

Fig. 6. Experiments results and the model comparison of thermal efficiency tests against the air volume flow rate.
728 M. Nem
s, J. Kasperski / Renewable Energy 97 (2016) 722e730
first day test mainly light Cirrus clouds were visible, and Stratocu-
mulus clouds were visible during second day test.
The single-day measured data was collected automatically and
recorded at 1-min intervals. The tests results are presented in
Figs. 7 and 8. The climatic parameters such as global and diffused
irradiation, ambient temperature are shown in the upper part of
the graphs collected. The middle part shows beam radiation, air
temperature at the inlet and outlet of the absorber. The bottom part
of the graphs shows thermal efficiency calculated as hourly and
daily average as well. The hourly and daily thermal efficiencies
were calculated as:
P
V rCp ðTout  Tin Þ
hd ¼ P (3)
Ib Aap
During the test performed on first day the average efficiency
calculated is 0.352, and respectively 0.356 during second day test.
The efficiencies calculated hourly and daily are presented in Table 5.
It is visible that thermal efficiency remains on the same level from
9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The highest value calculated is 0.425. The
Fig. 7. Experiment results of the daily performance evaluation on the first day.
lowest values of the efficiency are adequate to the sunrise/sunset
and strongly clouded sky. For daily performance evaluation rela-
tively good values 0.352 and 0.356 were achieved.
4.4. Temperature increase tests against solar radiation
The purpose of the experiment was to find a correlation of
temperature increase against solar radiation. The influence of wind
speed, which during measurement fluctuated around 1 m/s, has
been omitted. Because the system does not operate in a closed
cycle, the temperature at the inlet of the collector is strongly
dependent on the ambient temperature. Due to the impossibility of
changing radiation, the experimental data described in Section 4.3
was reused. A part of the data collected on first day test from 6:00
a.m. to 1:00 p.m. was selected and presented in Fig. 9. Beam irra-
diation change from 70 to 890 W/m2 respectively affects the tem-
perature increase from 2 to 43
C. Regression lines reveal almost a
linear correlation between the temperature increase and solar
irradiation. The regression coefficient is 0.0442. The reached
 M. Nem
s, J. Kasperski / Renewable Energy 97 (2016) 722e730 729

Fig. 8. Experiment results of the daily performance evaluation on the second day.

Table 5
Average thermal efficiency of the collector during one-day tests.

Test day Hours/efficiency

1 a.m. 6:00e0.187 7:00e0.305 8:00e0.345 9:00e0.353 10:00e0.363 11:00e0.376 12:00e0.361

p.m. 1:00e0.366 2:00e0.345 3:00e0.384 4:00e0.332 5:00e0.362 6:00e0.333 7:00e0.333
Average daily
efficiency 0.352
2 a.m. 6:00e e 7:00e e 8:00e0.266 9:00e0.298 10:00e0.384 11:00e0.394 12:00e0.425
p.m. 1:00e0.310 2:00e0.360 3:00e0.401 4:00e0.238 5:00e0.357 6:00e0.3368 7:00e0.368
Average daily
efficiency 0.356

efficiency is comparable to results of N2 heating presented in
Ref. [18] for the evacuated tube with a selective layer.
5. Conclusion
Research procedure used to explore thermal efficiency of a
parabolic collector used as an air heater was presented.
The collector performance was analysed experimentally against
the reduced temperature difference and against the air volume
flow rate. For all experiments an error analysis was performed for
the instrumentation used.
The comparison of the model calculation results with the
experimental results shows a relatively small deviation between
them. Deviation of thermal efficiency does not exceed ±5.4%.
730 M. Nem
s, J. Kasperski / Renewable Energy 97 (2016) 722e730
Fig. 9. Experiment results of the air temperature increase against solar radiation.
Validation of the mathematical model of heat transfer processes
showed its correctness and proved that the model can be accepted.
Two daily performance evaluation tests were done. The hourly
and daily thermal efficiencies were calculated. The comparison of
the highest hourly efficiency shows values similar to h0 calculated.
The proposed absorber design is a prototype with some tech-
nological weaknesses. It has not been industrially produced, as it is
the first stage of the research programme. Generally, the two weak
sides of the solution are: lack of tightness of the absorber and lack
of vacuum control of the glass casing. At the next stage the absorber
should be longitudinally welded, covered with selective oxide layer
and mounted inside a single glass pipe. It enables to obtain vacuum
from the glass cover, which will allow to increase thermal
efficiency.
Research on the optimization of air heating system for Polish
climatic conditions will be continued.
Acknowledgment
This work is sponsored by Wroclaw University of Technology
under project B50021.
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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Exergy based performance evaluation of solar air heater with arc-

shaped wire roughened absorber plate
Mukesh Kumar Sahu, Radha Krishna Prasad*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, 831014, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Exergy efficiency analysis is an useful method to evaluate overall performance of solar thermal systems
Received 11 December 2015 as it takes into consideration of useful energy output and consequent pumping power requirement. In
Received in revised form present work, an investigation on exergetic performance evaluation of solar air heater with arc-shaped
26 April 2016
wire rib roughened absorber plates has been made analytically by employing mathematical model and
Accepted 27 April 2016
the results have been compared with a plane absorber plate solar air heater for similar operating con-
Available online 5 May 2016
ditions. The exergetic efficiency curves as a function of Reynolds number (Re) and temperature rise
parameter (DT/I) for different roughness parameters have been plotted. The maximum enhancement in
Keywords:
Entropy generation rate
exergetic efficiency of roughened solar air heater as compared to smooth absorber plate solar air heater
Exergy efficiency has been found as 56% corresponding to relative roughness height (e/D) ¼ 0.0422. The design plots,
Artificial roughness exhibiting the optimum combination of roughness parameters, can be used to design arc shaped wire rib
Solar air heater roughened solar air heater.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction A number of experimental and theoretical investigations have

Solar energy is the most promising source of energy that can be
employed in solar thermal energy utilization systems. A solar air
heater is a simple device in which the air to be heated is passed
through a rectangular cross-section duct below a metallic absorber
plate with its sun-facing side blackened to facilitate absorption of
solar radiation incident on it. This heated air is to be utilized for
many applications such as space heating, drying for industrial and
agricultural purposes [1]. Transparent covers are placed over the
absorber plate to reduce the thermal losses from the heated
absorber plate. The conventional solar air heater has the inherent
disadvantage of its low thermal efficiency due to low heat transfer
capability between absorber plate and fluid (air) flowing in the
duct. To achieve improvement in collector thermal efficiency,
several methods like use of ribs, an extended heat transfer surface
area, porous media, corrugated plate surfaces, and artificial
roughness on air flow side of the air heater duct have been adopted.
They create turbulence in the flow that results in increase in fluid
mixing and interrupt the development of thermal boundary layer
which attributed to enhancement in heat transfer.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rkpappnit@gmail.com (R.K. Prasad).
been carried out by the researchers by employing artificial rough-
ness geometries on the absorber plate of solar air heater duct. The
artificial roughness were attached on single, double or three sided
wall of the duct (absorber plate). Varun et al. [2] carried out
experimental investigations, using the combination of inclined and
transverse wire ribs on the principal wall i.e. on the absorber plate
of the solar air heater. Kumar et al. [3] investigated the effect of gap
in the multiple V-ribs by the experimental investigations and found
6.74 times enhancement in Nusselt number and 6.37 times
enhancement in friction factor over the smooth plate solar air
heater. Prasad et al. [4] analytically investigated the effect of
transverse circular wire ribs as artificial roughness by employing it
on the three-sides of the solar air heater duct, and found it better
than the one sided transverse ribs. Gupta et al. [5] found that in-
clined continious ribs as roughness elements delivered higher
thermal performance as compared to transverse and smooth plate
solar air heater duct, they also evaluated the thermohydraulic
(effective) efficiency criteria analytically. Effective and thermal ef-
ficiency factor of discrete V-down roughness ribs was investigated
by Singh et al. [6] by employing mathematical model. Mittal et al.
[7] studied numerically the effective efficiency of five different
roughness geometries and compared with the conventional solar
air heater. The second law based analysis and entropy generation
number of chamfered rib-groove rib roughened absorber plate

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2016.04.083
0960-1481/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
234 M.K. Sahu, R.K. Prasad / Renewable Energy 96 (2016) 233e243

Nomenclature Tsun sun temperature, K

UL overall heat loss coefficient, W/m2 K
AC surface area of absorber plate,m2 Ut top loss coefficient, W/m2 K
Cp specific heat of air, J/kg K Ub bottom loss coefficient, W/m2 K
D equivalent or hydraulic diameter of duct, m Us side loss coefficient, W/m2 K
e rib height, m V velocity of air in the duct, m/s
En net energy flow, W Vw wind velocity, m/s
ES exergy inflow, W W width of duct, m
FP collector efficiency factor
G mass velocity of air, kg/s m2 Dimensionless parameters
h heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 K e/D relative roughness height
hw convective heat transfer coefficient due to wind, W/ eþ roughness Reynolds number
m2 K f friction factor for rough surface
H depth of duct, m fs friction factor for smooth surface
I intensity of solar radiation, W/m2 FR collector heat-removal factor
K thermal conductivity of air, W/m K a/90 relative angle of attack
Kg thermal conductivity of glass cover, W/m K Nus Nusselt number for smooth duct
Ki thermal conductivity of insulation, W/m K Nu Nusselt number for rough duct
L length of duct, m W/H duct aspect ratio
L1 spacing between covers, m P/e relative roughness pitch
Lg thickness of glass cover, m Re Reynolds number
Le thickness of collector edge, m
M number of glass cover Greek symbols
m mass flow rate, kg/s m dynamic viscosity of air, N s/m2
DP pressure drop across the duct, Pa (ta)e effective transmittance-absorptance product
DT (ToTi), air temperature rise across the duct,  C ra density of air, kg/m3
DT/I temperature rise parameter,  C m2/W a angle of attack, degree
Tg temperature of glass cover, K s Stefan-Boltzman's constant, W /m2 K4
To outlet air temperature, K di thickness of insulation, m
Ts sky temperature, K εp emissivity of absorber plate
P roughness pitch, m εg emissivity of glass cover
Pm pumping power, W b tilt angle of collector surface, degree
Qu useful heat gain, W hC Carnot efficiency
Ti fluid inlet temperature, K hth thermal efficiency
Ta ambient temperature, K heff effective efficiency
Tp mean plate temperature, K hEX exergetic or exergy efficiency
Tam mean air temperature, K hII exergetic or exergy efficiency
Tf bulk mean temperature of air in duct, K

solar air heaters has been reported by Layek et al. [8].
The studies [2e5] reveals that the dimensionless roughness
parameters such as relative roughness height (e/D), relative
roughness pitch (P/e), angle of attack (a), duct aspect ratio (W/H),
etc. have significant impact on heat transfer and friction factor
characteristics of roughened solar air heater duct. The artificially
roughened absorber plates enhance the thermal performance of
solar air heater but friction loss also increases substantially due to
presence of roughness elements, which leads to more power con-
sumption in propelling the air through the heater-duct. Therefore,
it is imperative to perceive the roughness element geometry and its
parameters combination which will deliver high thermal perfor-
mance and low friction factor of a solar air heater. The undesirable
power consumption requires to be minimized in order to improve
the overall performance of the solar air heater. Thermal perfor-
mance evaluation does not take the frictional power loss in the duct
into consideration, hence the concept of effective efficiency that
includes both the terms: useful thermal energy gain and pumping
power expended is considered to evaluate the thermohydraulic
performance. Exergetic performance analysis, derived from Ist and
IInd laws of thermodynamics, is an appropriate method that takes
into account the useful energy output and pumping power
requirement to evaluate the overall performance of solar thermal
systems.
Gupta and Kaushik [9] studied numerically the energy, effective
and exergy performance evaluation of solar air heater duct pro-
vided with different artificial roughness geometries. Gupta and
Kaushik [10] carried out there analytical investigation by using
expanded metal mesh as roughness geometry of solar air heater
duct; they evaluated the energy, effective and exergy augmentation
criteria of the roughened duct. Exergy based analysis, reported by
€
Gupta and Kaushik [11] for smooth plate solar air heater, Oztürk
and Demirel [12] for Packed bed solar air heater, Pandey et al. [13]
for solar cookers, Petela [14] for Cylinder parabolic cooker, Sami
et al. [15] for solar cabinet dryer provides useful information to
evaluate performance of solar thermal systems.
The exergy is the maximum work potential that can be obtained
from a form of energy [20]. Exergy analysis, derived from both the
first and second laws of thermodynamics is a powerful tool for
design, optimization, and performance evaluation of solar thermal
utilization systems [16e20]. Experimental investigation was car-
ried out by Saini and Saini [23] to enhance heat transfer and friction
 M.K. Sahu, R.K. Prasad / Renewable Energy 96 (2016) 233e243 235

factor by employing arc shape wire rib as roughness geometry on 2. Performance analysis of flat plate solar air heater
the absorber plate of the solar air heater. Various investigators re-
ported different concepts to predict the performance of solar air 2.1. Thermal analysis
heater [5e7] and use effective efficiency or thermohydraulic per-
formance criteria to predict the performance of roughened solar air The thermal efficiency of a solar air heater is the ratio of the
heater and found it as a suitable method to evaluate optimum useful heat energy given over a time period to the incident solar
values of roughness parameters. Based on the literature review, it is radiation over the same time period. The thermal efficiency of a
observed that the exergetic analysis of arc shaped wire rib rough- solar air heater can be given in the term of heat removal factor (FR)
ened solar air heater had not been reported. In the present study, [21].
the optimum roughness parameters of arc shape wire rib solar air
heater, as a function of temperature rise parameter (DT/I) based on
 
Qu T  Ta
exergetic efficiency (hII) are determined analytically. The schematic hth ¼ ¼ FR ðtaÞe  UL i (1)
IAC I
diagram of the arc shape wire rib solar air heater is shown in Fig. 1.
The roughness parameters of the study are relative roughness The thermal efficiency of solar air heater can also be given as;
height (e/D), relative roughness pitch (P/e), and relative angle of
attack (a/90). mCp ðTo  Ti Þ
hth ¼ (2)
IAC

Fig. 1. Arc shape roughness geometry arrangement. (a) Top view (b) Side view (enlarged) (c) Conventional Solar air heater.
236 M.K. Sahu, R.K. Prasad / Renewable Energy 96 (2016) 233e243

2.2. Exergy analysis


Ta
ES ¼ AC 1  (5)
Exergetic analysis is a useful method to evaluate the overall Tsun
performance of solar thermal systems including solar air heater.
This method incorporates determination of useful energy output The exergetic efficiency (hEX) is evaluated by:
and required pumping power and thus helps a designer to design
solar thermal systems, where the optimal use of energy is consid- En
hEX ¼ (6)
ered as an important issue. Fig. 2 (a) schematically shows exergy ES
flow diagram of a solar air heater [19].
The maximum exergy efficiency can be obtained by minimizing
The net exergy flow (En) represent the increase of the exergy
exergy losses and maximizing the net exergy flow. The components
flow of the fluid (air), during the time that passing through the
of exergy losses are [19].
collector, is maximized for optimization [19]. If the effect due to
kinetic energy and potential energy is neglected and the air is
1 Optical exergy losses:
treated as perfect gas, the net exergy flow (En) can be expressed by:
 
ELO ¼ IAC hex 1  ðtaÞe (7)

Where h

En ¼ IAC hth hC  Pm ð1  hC Þ (3)
ex¼ 1TTsun
a

In Eq. (3) the first term on the right hand side, is the exergy of 2 Exergy losses due to absorption of insolation or irradiation by
the absorbed solar energy transferred to the fluid (air), and the the absorber plate:
second term (on the right hand side of Eq. (3)) is the exergy losses

 
due to the friction. Ta
The Carnot efficiency hC in Eq. (3) is evaluated by the correlation: ELI ¼ IAC ðtaÞe hex  1  (8)
Tp

! 3 Exergy losses by convective and radiative heat transfer from

Ta absorber plate to environment:
hC ¼ 1 (4)
Tf  
 Ta
Exergy inflow (ES) due to solar radiation (I) on the absorber plate EEN ¼ UL AC Tp  Ta 1  (9)
Tp
surface is given by:

Fig. 2. (a) Exergy flow diagram of solar air heater. (b). Flowchart of procedures followed.
 M.K. Sahu, R.K. Prasad / Renewable Energy 96 (2016) 233e243 237

4 Exergy losses by heat transfer to the working fluid: the given temperature rise of air across the duct (DT) and the inlet
! air temperature (Ti) as:
Ta Ta
ELDF ¼ UL AC hth  (10)
Tf Tp
To ¼ Ti þ DT (12.a)

Where the temperature rise (DT) of air across the duct is computed
5 Exergy losses by friction:
by using the known value of temperature rise parameter (DT/I) as
! given below
Ta
ELDP ¼ mDP (11)
ra Tf
DT ¼ ðDT=IÞ  I (12.b)
Step3. Calculation of overall heat loss coefficient UL: The (UL) is
the sum of the top loss coefficient Ut, back loss coefficient Ub, and
3. Mathematical model and solution procedure edge loss coefficient Us. i. e.

The thermal behavior of solar air heater with roughened

absorber plate is similar to that of conventional flat plate solar air UL ¼ Ub þ Us þ Ut (13)
heater as in both the air heaters insolation is absorbed by the
The back heat loss coefficient Ub is calculated using the relation
absorber plate and the heat is transferred to the carrier fluid. The
given below:
absorbed solar radiation and the heat losses for roughened solar air
heater can be calculated by adopting the same procedure as for the
conventional solar air heater. It may be noted that since the Ki
Ub ¼ (14)
objective of this work is to present a methodology for optimum di
design of the solar air heater, the results need to be presented as
function of basic design parameters namely; temperature rise The edge heat loss coefficient is calculated using the relation
parameter (DT/I), Reynolds number (Re) and insolation (I) etc. given below:
In order to evaluate the exergetic efficiency (hII) of solar air
heater as per Eq. (6), the calculation starts and proceeds by taking ðL þ WÞH$Ki
values (base and range) of systems and operating parameters as Us ¼ (15)
LW di
applicable for solar air heaters. The stepwise calculation procedure
is given below: To calculate the top loss coefficient (Ut), an approximate initial
Step1. Selection of the system and operating parameters: The mean plate temperature is assumed as:
range/base values of system parameters including roughness ge-
ometries [23] and operating parameters, as given in Table 1 for the
To þ Ti
collector under consideration, have been selected. TP ¼ þ 10 C (16)
Step2. Calculation of outlet air temperature To: In the present 2
work, as the air is sucked into the solar air heater from the sur- Using the assumed value of the plate temperature, the top loss
rounding, the inlet air temperature (Ti) will be equal to ambient coefficient, Ut is evaluated by using the equation proposed by Garg
temperature (Ta). The outlet air temperature (To), is calculated from and Malhotra [22].

Table 1
Typical Values of System and Operating parameters used in analytical calculations.

Parameters Range/Base value(s)

System parameters
Collector length (L), m 1.5
Collector width (W), m 1.0
Duct depth (H), m 0.025
Number of glass covers (M), dimensionless 1.0
Thermal conductivity of insulation (Ki), W/m K 0.037
Thermal conductivity of glass (Kg), W/m K 0.75
Thickness of insulation (di), m 0.05
Effective transmittance absorptance product (ta)e, dimensionless 0.85
Emissivity of absorber plate (εP), dimensionless 0.9
Emissivity of glass cover (εg), dimensionless 0.88
Thickness of glass cover (Lg), m 0.004
Air gap between absorber plate and glass cover (L1), m 0.05
Thickness of collector edge (Le), m 0.2

Relative roughness height (e/D), dimensionless 0.0213e0.0422

Relative roughness pitch (P/e), dimensionless 10

Relative angle of attack (a/90), dimensionless 0.3333e0.6666

Operating parameters
Ambient temperature (Ta), K 300
Wind velocity (Vw), m/s 1.0
Temperature rise parameter (DT/I),  C m2/W 0.0025e0.010
Intensity of solar radiation or insolation (I), W/m2 500e1000
238 M.K. Sahu, R.K. Prasad / Renewable Energy 96 (2016) 233e243

2 31  
IðtaÞe  Qu2 =AC
Tp ¼ Ta þ (30)
6 M 17 UL
Ut ¼ 4  0:252 þ h 5
Tp Ta w
c Step10. Using the new value of plate temperature (TP), the it-
Tp Mþf 0
erations are performed till (Qu1 - Qu2) is reduced to a value below
2
 3
0.1% of Qu1.
6 s Tp2 þ Ta2 Tp þ Ta 7
þ4 5 (17) Step11. The friction factor is calculated using the correlation
0 1
1
εp þ0:0425M ð1εp Þ
þ 2Mþf
εg M developed from experimental results [23], which is reproduced
below,
Where
f ¼ 0:14408Re0:17103 ðe=DÞ0:1765 ða=90Þ0:1185 (31)

. 

f 0 ¼ ð9=hw Þ  30 h2w ðTa =316:9Þð1 þ 0:091MÞ (18) Step12. The pressure drop (DP) in the duct is computed as:

2fLV 2 ra
And DP ¼ (32)
D
hw ¼ 5:7 þ 3:8Vw (19) The mechanical power (Pm) is calculated as:

.  m$DP
c ¼ 204:429 ðcos bÞ0:252 L0:24 Pm ¼ (33)
1 (20) ra
Step4. Calculation of useful heat gain: The useful heat gain is Step13. The thermal efficiency is calculated from useful heat
calculated as: gain Qu, the average of Qu1 and Qu2 and defined as:
   Qu
Qu1 ¼ IðtaÞe  UL Tp  Ta Ac (21) hth ¼ (34)
IAC
Step5. Calculation of mass flow rate (m), mass velocity (G) and
Reynolds number (Re): m, G and Re are calculated as: Step14. The exergetic efficiency is calculated from Eq. (6).
The same procedure to calculate the exergetic efficiency is fol-
Qu1 lowed for the next set of roughness parameters, temperature rise
m¼ (22) parameter and insolation to cover the entire range of values as
Cp DT
given in Table 1. The flowchart of the procedures followed has been
shown in Fig. 2 (b).
m
G¼ (23)
WH
4. Results and discussion
GD
Re ¼ (24) Exergetic efficiency has been calculated as a function of Rey-
m
nolds number (Re) and temperature rise parameter (DT/I) covering
Step6. Calculation of convective heat transfer coefficient h: the entire range of system and operating parameters as given in
The Nusselt number is first calculated from the correlation Table 1.
developed on the basis of experimental results [23], as given below: Fig. 3 shows the variation of thermal efficiency (hth) and
exergetic efficiency (hII) as a function of Reynolds number (Re) of
Nu ¼ 0:001047Re1:3186 ðe=DÞ0:3772 ða=90Þ0:1198 (25) an arc shape wire rib roughened duct solar air heater for the
values of roughness parameters P/e ¼ 10, e/D ¼ 0.0422 and a/
Where, h is convective heat transfer coefficient defined as: 90 ¼ 0.3333 and Insolation I ¼ 1000 W/m2. It can be observed
from graph that, the thermal efficiency goes on increasing with
K$Nu increase in Reynolds number. The thermal efficiency is the func-
h¼ (26)
D tion of useful heat gain and as the Reynolds number increases the
Step7. The collector efficiency factor (FP) and heat removal factor rate of heat transfer increases, consequently the thermal effi-
(FR) are determined using the relations as given below: ciency goes on increasing. Furthermore, the exergetic efficiency
goes on increasing in lower range of Reynolds number and
h continuously to increases up to Reynolds number 10,000, and
FP ¼ (27) after attaining maxima at 10,000 Reynolds number, it starts
h þ UL
decreasing with further increase in Reynolds number. This hap-

   pens due to higher exergy losses at higher Reynolds number. It is
mCp U Ac FP
FR ¼ exp L 1 (28) also found that the exergetic efficiency (hII) becomes negative at
UL Ac mCp higher Reynolds number (Re > 35,000 approx.). The reason is,
Step8. The useful heat gain, Qu2, is computed as: with increase of mass flow rate of air and consequent increase in
Reynolds number, the exergy associated with the required
  pumping power exceeds the exergy of thermal energy collected
Qu2 ¼ FR IðtaÞe  UL ðTo  Ti Þ=2 AC (29)
and thus the net exergy flow (En) and thereby the exergetic effi-
Step9. The values of Qu1 in Eq. (21) and Qu2 in Eq. (29) are ciency becomes negative.
compared. These two values should be same. If the difference is Fig. 4 shows effect of temperature rise parameter (DT/I) on
more than the 0.1% of Qu1, then plate temperature (TP) is modified thermal efficiency (hth) and exergetic efficiency (hII) for arc-shaped
as: wire rib roughened solar air heater for roughness parameter of e/
 M.K. Sahu, R.K. Prasad / Renewable Energy 96 (2016) 233e243 239

Fig. 3. Variation of thermal efficiency and exergetic efficiency with Reynolds number for arc-shape wire rib roughened solar air heater for roughness parameters P/e ¼ 10, e/
D ¼ 0.0422 and a/90 ¼ 0.3333 and Insolation I ¼ 1000 W/m2.

Fig. 4. Variation of thermal efficiency and exergetic efficiency with temperature rise parameter for arc-shape roughened solar air heater for roughness parameters as P/e ¼ 10, e/
D ¼ 0.0422 and a/90 ¼ 0.3333 and Insolation I ¼ 1000 W/m2.

D ¼ 0.0422, a/90 ¼ 0.3333, P/e ¼ 10 and I ¼ 1000 W/m2. It can be
observed that thermal efficiency decreases continuously with in-
crease in temperature rise parameter. The exergetic efficiency in-
creases with increase in temperature rise parameter up to
0.009  C m2/W and then starts decreasing with further increase in
temperature rise parameter. It can also be observed that the rate of
increase of exergetic efficiency is very fast in lower range
(0.003e0.005  C m2/W) of DT/I, whereas the rate of decrease is very
slow beyond DT/I ¼ 0.010  C m2/W.
Concept of losses in a solar air heater was rouses and explored
by Altfeld et al. [19]. Fig. 5 (a). shows the exergy losses associated
with global irradiation (ES) in a solar air heater. It is seen from Fig. 5
(a), that the exergy losses by optical losses (ELO) is constant for all
values of Reynolds number as it is independent of the absorber
plate or fluid (air) temperature. The most important loss from the
solar thermal system is associated with absorption of insolation or
irradiation (ELI) by the absorber plate surface at mean plate tem-
perature (TP). A high absorber plate temperature leads in decre-
ment of the exergy losses by the absorption, however, it increases
the thermal losses to the environment (EEN).
240 M.K. Sahu, R.K. Prasad / Renewable Energy 96 (2016) 233e243
Fig. 5. (a) Variation of exergy loss components with Reynolds number for arc-shape
wire rib roughened duct solar air heater for rib roughness parameters as P/e ¼ 10, e/
D ¼ 0.0422 and a/90 ¼ 0.3333 at solar insolation of 1000 W/m2. (b) Enlarged view of
exergy loss components.
It can be concluded from Fig. 5 (b) that as the Reynolds number
increases the exergy losses to the environment (EEN) decreases. It
occurs due to the fact that increased Reynolds number decreases
the absorber plate temperature (TP), consequently exergy losses to
the environment decreases. The exergy losses by heat transfer to
fluid (ELDF) and the exergy losses by friction (ELDP) are associated
with internal irreversibilities, heat transfer from the absorber plate
to the fluid (air) at finite temperature difference, and friction in the
flow solar air heater duct. The exergy loss by heat transfer to fluid
(ELDF) increases with increase in Reynolds number as on increasing
the Reynolds number (up to Re ¼ 10,000). The absorber plate
temperature (TP) decreases, consequently the high rate of heat
transfer decreases the difference between inlet and outlet air
temperatures, thus for lower Reynolds number (Re < 10,000)
values, the exergy loss by heat transfer to fluid (ELDF) is high. The
higher Reynolds number increases the turbulent flow intensity,
pumping power (Pm) and the irreversibility thus exergy loss by
friction (ELDP) goes on increasing with increase in Reynolds number.
Figs. 6 and 7,respectively show the variation of exergetic effi-
ciency (hII) as a function of Reynolds number (Re) and temperature
rise parameter (DT/I) at different relative roughness height (e/D)
Fig. 6. Exergetic efficiency as function of Reynolds number for different relative
roughness height.
Fig. 7. Exergetic efficiency as function of temperature rise parameter for different
relative roughness height.
and for constant insolation (I) and other geometrical parameters.
It can be observed from Fig. 6 that the value of optimum exer-
getic efficiency (hII) varies with Reynolds number, up to Reynolds
number of 12,000 at relative roughness height (e/D) ¼ 0.0422 have
the highest exergetic efficiency (hII) for Re < 12,000. Exergetic ef-
ficiency started decreasing for realative roughness height (e/
D) ¼ 0.0422 after Re > 12,000 as compared to other relative
roughness height values. In the lower range of Reynolds number
(Re < 18,000) the thermal energy transfer dominants over the
pumping power consumption. The net exergy flow (En) and thereby
exergetic efficiency (hII) of the roughened solar air heater in the
lower range of Reynolds number (Re < 18,000) with highest value
of realative roughness height (e/D) is higher than for all other
values of realative roughness height (e/D). In higher range of Rey-
nolds number (Re > 18,000), the net exergy flow (En) and thereby
the exergetic efficiency (hII) becomes lower because the power
consumption with the highest value of e/D is more than the lower
values of e/D and therefore in higher range of Reynolds number
exergetic efficiency (hII) of roughened solar air heater with highest
e/D is closer to that of the smooth plate solar air heater. At higher
values of Reynolds number Re > 36,000 the exergetic efficiency (hII)
is having negative values. The smooth plate solar air heater is
 M.K. Sahu, R.K. Prasad / Renewable Energy 96 (2016) 233e243
having the lower value of (hII), for all the values of Reynold number
as compared to roughened solar air heater duct.
Fig. 7 shows the plot of exergetic efficiency (hII) as a function of
temperature rise parameter (DT/I) for different relative roughness
height (e/D) at constant insolation (I) and other geometrical pa-
rameters. It can be seen from Fig. 7 that exergetic efficiency (hII)
increases for the value of (DT/I) < 0.009  C m2/W after that it attains
its maximum value and then it starts decreasing for (DT/
I) > 0.009  C m2/W. The relative roughness height (e/D) ¼ 0.0422
shows the highest values of (hII) for (DT/I) < 0.009  C m2/W as
compared to other relative roughness height values. Flat plate solar
air heater have the lower values of (hII) for (DT/I) > 0.024  C m2/W
as compared to roughened solar air heater, after (DT/
I) < 0.024  C m2/W coincides with roughened solar air heater.
Figs. 8 and 9, respectively shows the plots of exergetic efficiency
(hII) as a function of Reynolds number (Re) and temperature rise
parameter (DT/I) at different relative angle of attack (a/90) and for
constant insolation I ¼ 1000 W/m2, and roughness parameters P/
e ¼ 10 and e/D ¼ 0.0422.
It is observed that relative angle of attack (a/90), which is one of
the important geometrical parameters of roughness, has also sig-
nificant effects on thermohydraulic performance of the solar air
heaters. For all values of relative angle of attack (a/90), taken into
consideration, the exergetic efficiency first increases, attains a
maxima and then decreases with the increase in Reynolds number
(Re), as can be seen in Fig. 8. The optimum value of relative angle of
attack (a/90) has been obtained as 0.3333, which yields maximum
exergetic efficiency corresponding to Reynolds number
(Re) ¼ 12,000 (approx.). The greater values of relative angle of
attack (a/90) give lower exergetic efficiency in lower range of
Reynolds number Re < 15,000 and also in the higher range
Re > 31,000. Smooth plate solar air heater has the lower values of
(hII) than the roughened solar air heater for all the values of Rey-
nolds number.
Similar trends are also observed for variation of relative angle of
attack (a/90) in the plot of exergetic efficiency (hII) versus tem-
perature rise parameter (DT/I) for different values of relative angle
of attack (a/90). It can be seen from Fig. 9 that exergetic efficiency
(hII) increases with a rapid rate in the range of 0.002 < (DT/
I) < 0.010  C m2/W and after attaining a maximum value, it starts
decreasing for further values of temperature rise parameter (DT/
I) > 0.010  C m2/W. The relative angle of attack (a/90) ¼ 0.3333,
shows the highest values of (hII) for (DT/I) < 0.010  C m2/W as
compared to other values of relative angle of attack. Flat plate solar
Fig. 8. Exergetic efficiency as function of Reynolds number for different relative angle
of attack.
241
Fig. 9. Exergetic efficiency as function of temperature rise parameter for different
relative angle of attack.
air heater has the lower values of (hII) as compared to roughened
solar air heater, for all the values of temperature rise parameter.
From the above discussion it is perceived that, for the complete
range of temperature rise parameter (DT/I) under taken in the
study, not a particular set of roughness geometrical parameter
deliver the optimal exergetic efficiency. From Fig. 7 it is observed
that for DT/I in the range of 0.0056e0.0111  C m2/W, the exergetic
efficiency has its maximum value corresponding to each different
values of relative roughness height (e/D). Also from Fig. 9 it is seen
that for DT/I in the range of 0.0052e0.0114  C m2/W the exergetic
efficiency has its maximum value corresponding to each different
values of relative angle of attack (a/90).
It is seen from Figs. 6 and 8, that are the plots of exergetic effi-
ciency (hII) as a function of Reynolds number (Re) that on
increasing Reynolds number, the exergetic efficiency starts
increasing and attains a maximal and after that starts decreasing,
with further increase in Reynolds number, the useful heat gain (Qu)
increases accompanied with high pumping power (Pm) require-
ment. After certain Reynolds number, the exergetic efficiency tends
to decrease as the pumping power is higher as compared to the
useful heat gain.
It can be concluded from Figs. 6 and 8 that the exergetic effi-
ciency (hII) of the arc shaped wire roughened solar air heater is
higher in lower range of Reynolds number (Re) (from 4000 to
15,000) and thus, it is desirable to operate the solar air heater
within this range in order to obtain the maximum effectiveness
from the system.
The maximum enhancement in exergetic efficiency of arc sha-
ped wire rib roughened solar air heater as compared to smooth
solar air heater has been obtained as 56% corresponding to e/
D ¼ 0.0422, and 54% corresponding to a/90 ¼ 0.3333 as given in
Table 2.
4.1. Optimization of roughness parameters
The plots of optimum values of relative roughness height (e/D),
and relative angle of attack (a/90) that correspond to maximum
exergetic efficiency (hII) for a given value of temperature rise
parameter (DT/I) are shown in Figs. 10 and 11, respectively.
Fig. 10 Shows the plots of relative roughness height (e/D) with
temperature rise parameter (DT/I) for different values of solar
insolation (I). It is observed that for all values of insolation the
relative roughness height (e/D) of 0.0422 is optimum for DT/
242 M.K. Sahu, R.K. Prasad / Renewable Energy 96 (2016) 233e243

Table 2
The maximum Percentage enhancement in exergetic efficiency (hII) of arc shape wire roughness duct as compared to smooth solar air
heater.

Roughness geometry parameter Optimum value Percentage (%) enhancement

Relative roughness height (e/D) 0.0422 56

Relative angle of attack (a/90) 0.3333 54

range of 0.0052e0.0114  C m2/W, the optimum relative angle of

attack is a function of insolation and temperature rise parameter.
Fig. 12. (a) and (b) Show the comparison of exergetic efficiency
of arc shaped wire rib roughened solar air heater with some
selected roughness geometries which are inclined and transverse
combined rib [2], continious inclined rib [5], transverse wire rib
[24] and metal grit ribs [25] for insolation I ¼ 1000 W/m2, relative
roughness pitch P/e ¼ 10, relative roughness height e/D ¼ 0.03,
relative angle of attack a/90 ¼ 0.33, and angle of attack a ¼ 60 (for
continious inclined rib). It is clear that arc shaped wire rib rough-
ened solar air heaters have the highest value of exergetic efficiency
among all the roughness geometries which is selected for the
analysis.

5. Conclusions

This analytical study presents a mathematical model in order to

Fig. 10. Optimum values of relative roughness height (e/D) on the basis of exergetic
efficiency.

Fig. 11. Optimum values of relative angle of attack (a/90) on the basis of exergetic
efficiency.

I > 0.0111  C m2/W whereas the relative roughness height (e/D) of

0.0213 is optimum for DT/I < 0.0056  C m2/W. For DT/I in the range
of 0.0056e0.0111  C m2/W, the optimum relative roughness height
is a function of insolation and temperature rise parameter.
Fig. 11 shows the variations of relative angle of attack (a/90)
with temperature rise parameter for different values of solar
insolation (I). It can be seen from Fig. 11 that for all values of
insolation the relative angle of attack (a/90) of 0.6666 is optimum
for DT/I > 0.0114  C m2/W whereas the relative angle of attack (a/ Fig. 12. (a). Comparison of exergetic efficiency values for arc shape wire rib roughness
90) of 0.3333 is optimum for DT/I < 0.0052  C m2/W.For DT/I in the geometry with other roughness geometries. (b). Enlarged view of Fig. 12 (a) For
Re ¼ 2000e24000.
 M.K. Sahu, R.K. Prasad / Renewable Energy 96 (2016) 233e243
predict the performance on the basis of exergetic efficiency of arc
shape wire rib roughened solar air heater. The results obtained have
been compared with conventional smooth duct solar air heater
under the similar operating conditions. The following conclusions
are drawn:
(1). There is significant increase in exergetic efficiency (hII) of
solar air heater with arc shaped wire rib roughened absorber
plate. The exergetic efficiency enhances up to 56% over the
smooth plate solar air heater.
(2). With increase in Reynolds number (Re), exergetic efficiency
starts increasing, obtains a maxima and then starts
decreasing with further increase in Reynolds number. Exer-
getic efficiency of arc shaped wire roughened solar air heater
is the highest for the Reynolds number ranges from 4000 to
15,000 for I e 1000 W/m2, relative roughness height e/
D ¼ 0.0422, relative angle of attack a/90 ¼ 0.3333 and rela-
tive roughness pitch P/e ¼ 10. Thus, it is desirable to operate
the solar air heater or any such solar system within this range
in order to obtain the maximum exergy from the system. At
higher Reynolds number (Re) above 35,000, exergetic effi-
ciency of roughened solar air heater becomes negative and
thus it is not desirable to run the system beyond this Rey-
nolds number.
(3). The exergetic efficiency strongly depends on the flow Rey-
nolds number and roughness parameter, the optimum
combination of roughness parameters is same for all inso-
lation values, and the optimum combination is relative
roughness height (e/D) ¼ 0.0422, relative roughness pitch (P/
e) ¼ 10, and relative angle of attack (a/90) ¼ 0.3333.
(4). The present exergetic efficiency criteria for the analysis of
solar thermal systems are suitable for design of roughened
solar air heater, and resulting design plots can be used to
design arc shaped wire rib roughened solar air heater.
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 Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 77 (2016) 45–54

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/etfs

Investigation of effect of the circular ring turbulators on heat transfer

augmentation and fluid flow characteristic of solar air heater
_
Adem Acır a,⇑, Ismail Ata b, Mehmet Emin Canlı a
a
Gazi University, Faculty of Technology, Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Teknikokullar, Ankara, Turkey
b
Gazi University, Institute of Science and Technology, Ankara, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study presented effects of the circular ring turbulators (CRTs) having different pitch ratio and hole
Received 13 November 2015 number on heat transfer augmentation in a new type solar air heater (SAH). The experiments have been
Received in revised form 16 March 2016 performed by varying the parameters, pitch ratio (PR), hole number (N) and Reynolds number (Re) in a
Accepted 11 April 2016
range of between 3000 and 7500 under solar radiation heat flux (I). The results obtained using CRTs com-
Available online 12 April 2016
pared with conventional plain tube. The experimental results have shown a significant enhancement in
heat transfer on SAHs with CTRs. According to the experimental results, the higher heat transfer augmen-
Keywords:
tation with CRTs inserted inside the tube in SAHs have been obtained for PR = 2 and N = 2. The best exper-
Heat transfer augmentation
Circular ring turbulator
imental results were found with
229% heat transfer enhancement,
5.8 times friction factor compared
Solar air heater to a conventional plain tube and the thermal performance factor (g) was computed as
1.83. In addition,
Friction factor statistical correlations for Nu, f and g were developed. These correlation results illustrated a good agree-
Thermal performance ment with experimental results with ±10% deviation.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction performance in SAHs to improve of heat transfer enhancement

Solar air heaters (SAHs) are solar energy utilization systems.
The SAHs absorb the solar radiations and convert it into thermal
energy at the absorbing surface. This energy can transferred to a
fluid flowing through the collector. SAHs use as heat exchanger
and are cheap. SAHs performed for heating, timber seasoning and
agriculture drying [1]. To augment and improve heat transfer,
active and passive methods used in absorber surface in SAHs, heat
exchangers and gas turbine blades. Active method needs the extra
power sources as jet impingement, fluid vibration and injection.
The other method is passive method that does not require extra
power sources and forces [2]. Passive enhancing method includes
extended surfaces, selective surfaces, swirl flow devices, rough sur-
faces, fins of the absorber surface, baffles to augment of the heat
transfer. In SAHs, the heat transfer enhancement can provided with
creating turbulence flow. In the literature with motivation from
the augmentation of the heat transfer, the artificial roughness
having form of repeated ribs used for the turbulence flow in SAHs.
Literature investigations have carried out to the heat transfer
enhancement of solar air heater with roughness elements on the
surface. Karwa and Chitoshiya [3] performed the thermal hydraulic
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: adema@gazi.edu.tr (A. Acır).
with 60 V-down discrete rib roughness’s. Singh et al. [4], worked
with varying parameters, relative roughness height (e/D), width
(W/w), pitch (p/e) and arc angle (a) of Reynolds number (Re) in
the range of 2200–22,000 to augmentation of heat transfer. Benli
[5] conducted the heat transfer characteristics in the SAHs with
use of corrugated trapeze, reverse corrugated, reverse trapeze,
and a base flat-plate collector. Bopche [6] investigated effects of
the form of specially prepared inverted U-shaped turbulators of
the absorber surface for the heat transfer improvement. Prom-
vonge and Eiamsa-ard [7] studied the thermal performance of a
tube with combined conical-ring and twisted-tape insert and com-
pared the experimental results. Obtained results showed that the
conical-ring and twisted-tape insert provides better overall
enhancement than the smooth tube. The improvement of heat
transfer coefficient and friction factor with multiple V-rib rough-
ness in solar air heater duct was performed for relative roughness
height (e/D), pitch (P/e), width (W/w) and angle of attack (a) by
Hans et al. [8]. The heat transfer characteristics in a SAHs channel
fitted with combined wavy-rib and Skullonget et al. [9], investi-
gated groove turbulators for different rib-pitch to channel-height
ratios (PR) with a single rib-to-channel height ratio (BR). Acır and
Ata [10] performed the heat transfer improvement and fluid char-
acteristics with using CRTs having various angle ratios. The aug-
mentation of heat transfer with use of artificial roughness in the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2016.04.012
0894-1777/Ó 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
46 A. Acır et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 77 (2016) 45–54

Nomenclature

Ap absorber plate area of collector, m2 U air velocity, m/s

cp specific heat of air, J/kg °C V_ volumetric flow rate, m3/s
D diameter, mm
dh hole diameter, mm Greek letters
di inner diameter, mm m kinematic viscosity, m2/s
f friction factor q fluid density, kg/m3
h heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 °C g thermal performance factor
I solar radiation, W/m2
k thermal conductivity, W/m2 °C Subscripts
L length, mm a air
m_ mass flow rate, kg/s
b bulk
N hole number e environment
Nu Nusselt number in inlet
P fluid pressure, Pa out outlet
Pr Prandtl number
p plain tube
PR pitch ratio s surface
Re Reynolds number t turbulator
Qu useful heat gain, W
T temperature, °C

form 60° inclined discrete rib for various parameters viz. relative
roughness height (e/D), pitch (P/e) and gap position (d/W) was
examined by Kumar et al. [11]. Kongkaitpaiboonet al. [12], per-
formed the thermal performance of a tube with CRTs. It observed
that the CRTs provide better overall enhancement than the smooth
tube. Sethi et al. [13] investigated the enhancement of heat transfer
with dimple shaped roughness and empirical equations for Nusselt
number and friction factor derived and compared. Jaurker et al.
[14], investigated the effect of relative roughness height 0.0181–
0.0363; relative roughness pitch 4.5–10.0, and groove position to
pitch ratio 0.3–0.7 to improve of heat transfer. Hobbi et al. [15],
studied the thermal performance analysis of a flat-plate solar col-
lector with use of the twisted strip, coil-spring wire and conical
ridges. Bhagoriaet al. [16], performed the thermal performance

Fig. 1. Schematic view of experimental set-up.

Fig. 2. Sectional view of absorber plate in experimental setup.

 A. Acır et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 77 (2016) 45–54 47

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram with parameters of circular ring turbulators.

factor in the convection flow air in SAHs with use of the rectangu-
lar duct for various Reynolds number.
This paper presented effects of the CRTs of heat transfer aug-
mentation in SAHs having semi-circular absorber plate for both
to utilize of renewable energy and practical applications as a
new approach. The main aim of the this study was to investigate
the heat transfer augmentation using various the parameters, pitch
ratio (PR), hole number (N) and Reynolds number in a range of
between 3000 and 7500 under solar radiation heat flux (I). Nu, f
and g obtained by using CRTs in SAHs compared with conventional
plain tube. In addition, statistical correlations for the Nu, f and g
derived and compared deviations with experimental results.
2. Experimental set-up
The experimental setup illustrated in Fig. 1. In addition, the
temperature measuring points in the sectional view of absorber
plate, schematic diagram with parameters (L, D, N) of CRTs and
details of the SAHs having semi-circular type’s absorber plates
have shown in Figs. 1–3. The SAHs that have 0.5 mm thickness a
dull black painted galvanized copper absorbing surfaces dimen-
sions were 700 mm  350 mm. This study applied a new approach
to utilize of renewable energy and practical applications. The new
SAHs fabricated and designed to increase heat transfer as different
from literature. In the literature, the artificial roughness having
form of repeated ribs of absorber surfaces has used to improve of
heat transfer in SAHs. In this study, the SAHs were used the various
type turbulators to improve heat transfer instead of repeated ribs
of absorber surfaces as different from literature. The main goal
for CRT size and arrangement were to improve of heat transfer in
SAHs. The main criteria for CRT size and arrangement in SAHs con-
sidered with reference to previous studies performed by heat flux
electric heater for comparison [11]. As shown in Figs. 1 and 3, three
different copper tubes inside of the SAHs have arranged and CRTs
have inserted inside the tube in this experimental study. CRTs hav-
ing various PR and N have inserted inside the tube for working fluid
(air) circulations. CRTs dimensions and ratios using experimental
tests in the SAHs have given in Table 1. To create of the turbulence
flow, the parameters used during the experiments of this study is
pitch ratio (PR = L/D = 2, 2.8, 3.5) and hole number (N = 2, 4, 6)
and Reynolds number in a range of between 3000 and 7500. The
maximum instantaneous radiation energy measured as 1100 W/m2
at noon. The experimental set was isolated and placed facing south
with a slope angle of 30°. The solar radiation incident on the
surface measured with a Solorimeter (KIMO-SL100), the pressure
loss with a digital manometer (BEAMEX-EXT200MCS) and the
velocity of the air with an anemometer (LUTRON AM-4202).
Measured values recorded at noon. The ambient temperature,
collector input, output and surface temperatures measured with
K type thermocouple. The inlet and outlet temperatures in the
collectors, ambient and absorber plate temperatures measured
with a digital data logger (AMATEK ASM 802-B) and recorded from
several selected locations.
3. Data processing

Table 1 The present work performed for heat transfer augmentation in

Turbulator dimensions using experimental tests.
the SAHs having CRTs. The Nu and friction factor (f) represented
Holes Hole Length _
Inner Diameter Pitch ratio
diameter number (L), mm diameter (D), mm (PR = L/D) Table 2
(dh), mm (N) (di), mm The uncertainty during the measurements of the parameters.
8 2 100 20 50 2
Parameter Unit Uncertainty (d)
140 2.8
175 3.5 Collector inlet temperature °C ±0.10
Collector outlet temperature °C ±0.10
8 4 100 20 50 2
Absorber surface temperature °C ±0.10
140 2.8
Ambient temperature °C ±0.10
175 3.5
Air flow velocity m/s ±0.02
8 6 100 20 50 2 Time min ±0.10
140 2.8 Solar radiation W/m2 ±1.26
175 3.5 Pressure loss Pa ±0.10
48 A. Acır et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 77 (2016) 45–54

Recirculated vortex

Two dimensional view Primary flow stream

Recirculated vortex

Primary flow stream

Three dimensional view

Fig. 4. Schematic view of velocity stream-line flow behavior in CRTs insert tube.

80
(a) N=2, PR=2.0
70 N=2, PR=2.8
N=2, PR=3.5
60
N=4, PR=2.0
50 N=4, PR=2.8
N=4, PR=3.5
Nu

40
N=6, PR=2.0
30 N=6, PR=2.8
N=6, PR=3.5
20
Plain tube
10 Gnielinski
Kays-Crowford
0
2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
Re

80 N=2
(b) Re = 3188
70 Re = 4393
Re = 5912
Re = 7395
60 N=4
Re = 3188
Nu

50 Re = 4393
Re = 5912
Re = 7395
40
N=6
Re = 3188
30 Re = 4393
Re = 5912
Re = 7395
20
1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
PR

Fig. 5. Variation of Nu with (a) Re and (b) PR.

 A. Acır et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 77 (2016) 45–54 49

for heat transfer and pressure loss, respectively. The Nu, f and g For a constant pumping power [17–22],
computed from the experimental data. In the test section in SAHs,
the useful heat gain ðQ u Þ of the air calculated as [17–22]: ðV_ DPÞp ¼ ðV_ DPÞt ð7Þ
_ p  ðT out  T in Þ
Q u ¼ m:c ð1Þ
and the relationship between f and Re were given as below [17–22]:
The heat transfer coefficient for the test section is:
3 3
Qu ðfRe Þp ¼ ðfRe Þt ð8Þ
h¼ ð2Þ
Ap  ðT s  T b Þ
where the bulk temperature of the working fluid (air), Tb, can be At the same pumping power, the g, given as below by Refs. [17–22]:
found by averaging the inlet and outlet temperatures of the air  
Nut
[17–22]. Tb can determine the physical properties of the air: Nup
g ¼  1=3 ð9Þ
T b ¼ ðT out þ T in Þ=2 ð3Þ ft
fp
and Ts is the average surface temperature of the SAHs absorber sur-
face. The heat transfer coefficient and Nu have calculated as below Estimated uncertainties of experimental results have computed
[17–22]: with uncertainty method suggested by Kline and McClintock [23].
The uncertainty of measurements has given as shown in Table 2.
h:D
Nu ¼ ð4Þ In addition, the maximum uncertainties of non-dimensional param-
kair eters have computed to be ±10% for Re, ±7% for Nu and ±10% for f.
The Re was written by
U:D
Re ¼ ð5Þ 4. Results and discussions
m
The f can written as The experimental results on heat augmentation and flow fric-
DP tion characteristics in SAHs with CRTs having different PR and N
f ¼
 2  ð6Þ
L
q U2 under solar radiation heat flux (I) were performed in the form
D
Nu, f and g. In addition, schematic view of velocity stream-line flow
in which U is mean air velocity in the copper tube inserted in SAHs. behavior in CRTs insert tube in SAHs was shown in Fig. 4.

3.5
(a) N=2, PR=2.0

N=2, PR=2.8
3.0
N=2, PR=3.5

2.5 N=4, PR=2.0

Nut/Nup

N=4, PR=2.8

2.0 N=4, PR=3.5

N=6, PR=2.0
1.5
N=6, PR=2.8

N=6, PR=3.5
1.0
2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
Re

3.5 N=2
(b) Re = 3188
Re = 4393
3.0
Re = 5912
Re = 7395
N=4
2.5
Nut/Nup

Re = 3188
Re = 4393
Re = 5912
2.0
Re = 7395
N=6
1.5 Re = 3188
Re = 4393
Re = 5912
1.0 Re = 7395
1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
PR
Fig. 6. Variation of Nut/Nup with (a) Re and (b) PR.
50 A. Acır et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 77 (2016) 45–54

4.1. Validation test of plain tube present results for experimental plain tube provided to be in good
agreement with the Nu and f correlations given of Eqs. (10)–(13).
The first process on heat transfer and friction characteristics in a
circular plain tube for experimental results presented in this study
4.2. Heat transfer
has validated in terms of Nu and f. The Nu and f obtained from the
present circular plain tube compared with the Eqs. (10)–(13) corre-
The variations of Nu with Re, PR and N were illustrated in
lations and confirmed with the Eqs. (10) and (11) Nu formulation
Fig. 5a and b. As investigated in Fig. 5a and b, the Nu was increased
given by Gnielinski [17,21] and Kays & Crowford [5,22] and Eqs.
with the increment of Re and the Nu was decreased with the incre-
(12) and (13) f formulation given by Petukhov [17,21] and Blasius
ment of PR and N. It seen that the CRT was generated heat transfer
[17,21], respectively.
augmentation a similar structure in comparison with the plain
The correlation equations used to provide experimental system
tube as shown in Fig. 5a. The highest Nu was obtained at the lowest
validations have given as below:
PR = 2 and N = 2. The decrement PR and N provided the higher flow
Gnielinski correlation for Nu,
blockage and increased contact surface area in the flow circulation
ðf =8ÞðRe  1000ÞPr and separation inside tube. Increasing contact surface area with
Nu ¼ 1=2
3000 < Re < 5  106 ð10Þ the decrement PR and N provided better increase in the turbulence
1 þ 12:7ðf =8Þ ðPr2=3  1Þ
intensity of the flow than the plain tube. The decrement PR and N
Kays & Crowford correlation for Nu, provided the better of heat transfer enhancement. However, the
decrement PR and N can caused the pressure increment. For
Nu ¼ 0:0158Re0:8 ð11Þ the CRTs at PR = 2, the Nu values for the N = 2, 4 and 6 were in
Petukhov correlation for f, the range of 229–121%, 212–90%, and 160–64% above the plain
tube, respectively, in a range of Re = 3000 and Re = 7500. The low-
2
f ¼ ð0:79 ln Re  1:64Þ 3000 < Re < 5  106 ð12Þ est hole number (N = 2) provided the increment of heat transfer
about 6–18% with N = 4 and 18–35% with N = 6, respectively, in
Blasius correlation for f,
the range of Re = 3000 and Re = 7500. The Nu values for the
f ¼ 0:316Re0:25 3000 < Re < 20; 000 ð13Þ PR = 2, 2.8 and 3.5 were in the range of 229–121%, 188–103%,
and 131–75% above the plain tube, respectively, for the CRTs at
The experimental plain tube data’s values with Eqs. (10)–(13) corre- N = 2. The Nu values with the lowest pitch ratio (PR = 2) given
lation results to provide experimental system validations were higher heat transfer than with the increment pitch ratios
compared. Nu and f in the present plain tube verified. The devia- (PR = 2.8 and PR = 3.5) about 9–17% and 26–44% for the CRTs at
tions of experimental Nu with the Eqs. (10) and (11) were obtained N = 2 with Re = 3000 and Re = 7500, respectively. Also, heat transfer
within ±15% whereas; the deviations of experimental f with the Eqs. augmentation at PR = 2 and N = 2 were found as 229% and 121%
(12) and (13) found as ±11%. As shown in Figs. 5a and 7a, the with Re = 3000 and Re = 7500 in comparison with the plain tube.

0.30
N=2, PR=2.0
(a)
N=2, PR=2.8
0.25
N=2, PR=3.5
N=4, PR=2.0
0.20
N=4, PR=2.8
N=4, PR=3.5
0.15
f

N=6, PR=2.0
N=6, PR=2.8
0.10
N=6, PR=3.5
Plain tube
0.05
Blasius
Petukhov
0.00
2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
Re

0.30
N=2
(b) Re = 3188
Re = 4393
0.25
Re = 5912
Re = 7395
N=4
0.20
Re = 3188
Re = 4393
f

Re = 5912
0.15
Re = 7395
N=6
Re = 3188
0.10
Re = 4393
Re = 5912
Re = 7395
0.05
1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
PR

Fig. 7. Variation of f with (a) Re and (b) PR.

 A. Acır et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 77 (2016) 45–54 51

The CRTs with reduction of N and PR have more efficient flow char-
acteristics that have stronger turbulence intensity. In addition,
evaluation of themselves the PR and N, PR provided higher heat
transfer rate than the N of the CRTs under the same conditions.
The increment of the heat transfer enhancement with decreasing
PR was due to better flow characteristic having stronger turbulence
intensity according to N.
In addition, Fig. 6a and b shown the Nusselt number ratio (Nut/
Nup) against the Reynolds number, PR and N. The Nut/Nup tends to
decrease with the increment Re for all cases in Fig. 6a. Moreover, it
observed that the Nut/Nup decreased with the rise of PR and N corre-
sponding various Re in Fig. 6b. The Nut/Nup for N = 2, 4 and 6 at PR = 2
were in the range of 3.3–2.2, 3.1–1.9, and 2.6–1.6, respectively, in the
range of Re = 3000 and Re = 7500. The values of Nut/Nup at N = 2 were
obtained as 1.06–1.18 times with N = 4 and 1.18–1.35 times with
N = 6, respectively, in the range of Re = 3000 and Re = 7500. At
N = 2, the Nut/Nup values for the PR = 2, 2.8 and 3.5 were changed
in the range of 3.3–2.2, 2.9–2.0, and 2.3–1.8, respectively, in the
range of Re = 3000 and Re = 7500. The increment of Nut/Nup with
PR = 2 according to PR = 2.8 and PR = 3.5 for N = 2 were computed
as 9–17%, and 26–44%, respectively, in the range of Re = 3000 and
Re = 7500. The higher Nut/Nup ratios were found as 3.3 and 2.2 of
the smallest N = 2 and PR = 2 in the range of Re = 3000 and
Re = 7500, respectively. It observed that improvement of the heat
transfer was higher at low Re, PR and N.
4.3. Friction factor
Fig. 7a and b illustrated the variation of the pressure drop in the
form of f with Re, PR and N. It was observed that the use of the CRTs
caused a substantial increase in the f over the plain tube as shown
in Fig. 7a for various Re. It can explain that flow fluid with turbula-
tors inserted inside the tube prevented and increased contact sur-
face area as compared to the plain tube. Increasing contact surface
caused both prolonged residence time of the flow and dynamic
pressure of the fluid. In Fig. 7a, the f decreased with the increment
in Re due to inversely proportional to the velocity of the flow. On
the other hand, the f was increased with the decrement of PR
and N for Re in a range of between 3000 and 7500 in Fig. 7b. The
maximum f was found with PR = 2 and N = 2 as 0.28 and 0.15 in
a range of between 3000 and 7500 Reynolds number, respectively
as shown in Fig. 7a. For the CRTs at PR = 2, the f values for the N = 2,
4 and 6 were found in the range of 478–289%, 411–242% and
256–163% according to the plain tube, respectively, in a range of
between 3000 and 7500. The f of the N = 2 increased as average
19% and average 62% according to N = 4 and N = 6, respectively,
in the range of Re = 3000 and Re = 7500. The f values for the
PR = 2, 2.8 and 3.5 at N = 2 were found in the range of 478–289%,
433–263% and 411–247% times above the plain tube, respectively,
in a range of between 3000 and 7500. The f increments of the
PR = 2 according to PR = 2.8 and PR = 3.5 were calculated as average
6% and average 17%, respectively, in a range of between 3000 and
7500. In addition, the mean increases in f at PR = 2 and N = 2 were
5.0 times comparison with the plain tube.
Fig. 8a and b illustrated the variation of the friction factor ratio,
(ft/fp), with Re, PR and N. It is seen that the ft/fp decreased with the
increment of Re as shown in Fig. 8a. The CRTs combined with the
various PR and N provided a higher increase in the ft/fp at the same
conditions as can be seen in Fig. 8b. The ft/fp for N = 2, 4 and 6 at
PR = 2 were in the range of 5.8–3.9, 5.1–3.4 and 3.6–2.6 times,
respectively, in the range of Re = 3000 and Re = 7500. At N = 2,
the ft/fp values for the PR = 2, 2.8 and 3.5 were changed in the range

7.0 N=2, PR=2.0

(a)
6.0 N=2, PR=2.8

N=2, PR=3.5
5.0
N=4, PR=2.0
4.0
ft/fp

N=4, PR=2.8
3.0
N=4, PR=3.5

2.0 N=6, PR=2.0

N=6, PR=2.8
1.0
N=6, PR=3.5
0.0
2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
Re

7.0
N=2
(b) Re = 3188
6.0 Re = 4393
Re = 5912
Re = 7395
5.0
N=4
Re = 3188
ft/fp

4.0 Re = 4393
Re = 5912
Re = 7395
3.0
N=6
Re = 3188
2.0 Re = 4393
Re = 5912
Re = 7395
1.0
1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
PR
Fig. 8. Variation of ft/fp with (a) Re and (b) PR.
52 A. Acır et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 77 (2016) 45–54

2.0
(a) N=2, PR=2.0

1.8 N=2, PR=2.8

N=2, PR=3.5
1.6
N=4, PR=2.0

η
1.4 N=4, PR=2.8

N=4, PR=3.5
1.2
N=6, PR=2.0

1.0 N=6, PR=2.8

N=6, PR=3.5
0.8
2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
Re

2.0
N=2
(b) Re = 3188
1.8 Re = 4393
Re = 5912
Re = 7395
1.6
N=4
Re = 3188
η

1.4 Re = 4393
Re = 5912
Re = 7395
1.2
N=6
Re = 3188
1.0 Re = 4393
Re = 5912
Re = 7395
0.8
1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
PR
Fig. 9. Variation of g with (a) Re and (b) PR.

of 5.8–3.9, 5.3–3.6 and 5.1–3.5 times, respectively, in the range of the Nu, f and g for CRTs with different PR and N have correlated as
Re = 3000 and Re = 7500. The increment with PR = 2 according to follows:
PR = 2.8 and PR = 3.5 for N = 2 were computed as 4–8% and The Nu correlation:
12–27%, respectively, in the range of Re = 3000 and Re = 7500.
The mean ft/fp for PR = 2 and N = 2, 4 and 6 were computed to be Nu ¼ 0:391Re0:637 ðPRÞ0:461 ðNÞ0:208 ð14Þ
5.0, 4.2 and 3.0 times of that for the plain tube, respectively, in The f correlation:
the range of Re = 3000 and Re = 7500.
f ¼ 116:5Re0:676 ðPRÞ0:321 ðNÞ0:432 ð15Þ
4.4. Evaluation of performance
The g correlation:

Fig. 9a and b illustrated the variation of g with Re, PR and N. For
all conditions, the g compared at a similar pumping power as
defined in Eq. (9). The g exhibited reduction trend with increment
Re for all conditions as can be seen in Fig. 9a. The highest g were
obtained at lower Re due to lower flow blockage of the CRTs with
PR = 2 and N = 2 as shown in Fig. 9a. In addition, the g increased
with reduction of N and PR as can be seen in Fig. 9b. The highest
g were about 1.83, 1.65 and 1.34 at PR = 2, 2.8 and 3.5 for N = 2,
respectively. For the PR = 2 at N = 2, 4 and 6, the highest g were
about 1.83, 1.81 and 1.70, respectively. The g with N increasing
from 2 to 6 at PR = 2 and PR = 3.5 decreased average about 8%
and 1%, respectively. On the other hand, the g with PR decreasing
from 3.5 to 2 at N = 2 and N = 6 increased average about 31% and
19%, respectively. The results obtained for Nu, f and g results have
indicated in a good performance as compared to many of the pre-
vious researches in the same field.
4.5. Correlations
Empirical equations for Nu, f and g in the range of Re = 3000 and
Re = 7500 were derived by using regression analysis. The results of
g ¼ 86:282Re0:443 ðPRÞ0:335 ðNÞ0:022 ð16Þ
The comparison of results obtained from Eqs. (14)–(16) and exper-
imental results plotted in Figs. 10–12. The deviations between
experimental and predicted results obtained correlations were
within acceptable limit as ±10% for Nu, f and g, respectively.
4.6. Comparison of results
In this section, the effects of the CRTs having different parame-
ters on heat transfer augmentation in SAHs compared with previ-
ous similar works. The main aim of this study is both to improve
of the heat transfer to benefit from renewable energy. A new
design SAHs considered with reference to previous studies per-
formed by heat flux electric heater and the design fabricated using
turbulators instead of rib of absorber surface. The Nut/Nup, ft/fp and
g results obtained of SAHs having CRT of present study compared
with the related results in previous works. Kongkaitpaiboon
et al., [12] performed effect of the CRT in a heat exchanger tube
as regards heat transfer enhancement. The maximum Nut/Nup
and ft/fp was found as 2.09, 50 times, respectively, according to
 A. Acır et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 77 (2016) 45–54 53

80 groove turbulators for different pitch ratio (PR) and rib height
(BR). The maximum Nut/Nup and ft/fp in the PR = 0.5 with inline ribs
70 and grooves were as
7.5 and
95 at the lowest Reynolds number.
Nu (Experimental data)

The g found as
1.9 with PR = 0.5 with inline ribbed and grooved
60
+ 10 % upper wall at the Re 5000. The heat transfer augmentation of SAHs
50
with multiple V-baffle vortex generators (BVG) were investigated
by Tamna et al. [25], for blockage (BR) and channel-height (PR)
40
-10 % ratios with in-line, staggered and single. The highest Nut/Nup and
ft/fp in the PR = 0.5 with inline were calculated as 7.8 and 90 times.
30 On the other hand, the maximum g of
1.9 was obtained at the
lowest Reynolds number for PR = 0.5 with single. Promvonge [26]
20 performed the augment of the heat transfer in tube with snail
20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Nu (Predicted data) entry and coiled-wire inserts. Promvonge found the Nut/Nup and
ft/fp as
4 and
50 times with square-wire coil and snail entry
Fig. 10. Predicted data of Nu versus experimental data. [26]. Moreover, the maximum g computed as
1.5 for the same
conditions. Heat flux electric heater performed these studies given
literature. In this study performed to utilize solar energy in SAHs.
0.35
Comparatively in this study, the Nut/Nup and ft/fp were increased
0.30
as
3.3 and
29 times as regards the plain tube for PR = 2 and
f (Experimental data)

N = 2. At a constant pumping power, the highest g was found as

0.25 1.07 in the PR = 2 and N = 2 at the lowest Reynolds number in this
+10 % study. The Nut/Nup, ft/fp and g results in this study were exhibited a
0.20 good performance compared with literature as regards utilization
from renewable energy.
0.15 -10 %

0.10 5. Conclusions

0.05 In this study, an experimental study performed to examine the

0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35
heat transfer and flow friction characteristics in SAHs using the
f (Predicted data)
CRTs having various PR and N of the Re in a range of between
Fig. 11. Predicted data of friction factor versus experimental data. 3000 and 7500. The main results of this study written as follows:

 The highest heat transfer augmentation was changed as 229%

2.5 and 121% with the lower PR = 2 and N = 2 in a range of between
3000 and 7500, respectively, compared to that in the plain tube.
On the other hand, the highest pressure drop in the SAHs was
η (Experimental data)

2.0
+ 10 %
1.5
- 10 %
1.0
0.5
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
η (Predicted data)
Fig. 12. Predicted data of g versus experimental data.
plain tube for DR = 0.5 and PR = 6 whereas; the highest g was
obtained as1.07 with the use of the CRTs for DR = 0.7 and PR = 6
at Re = 4000. Thianpong et al. [19], studied for the heat transfer
enhancement in a tube equipped with twisted-rings (TRs) different
with ratio (w/D) and pitch ratio (p/D). At Re = 6000, the maximum
Nut/Nup and ft/fp for W/D = 0.15 and p/D = 1.0 were computed as

3.4 and 38 times, respectively, according to plain tube whereas;
the maximum g was found as 1.25 with the use of the TRs for
W/D = 0.05 and p/D = 1.0 parameters. Eiamsa-ard et al. [24] inves-
tigated to improve of heat transfer in a tube equipped with CRTs
and twisted tape (TT) swirl generators for various pitch (l/D) and
twist (y/W) ratios. The maximum Nut/Nup and ft/fp for l/D = 1.0
and y/W = 3 were obtained as 4.5 and 33.8 times of that for the
plain tube. The highest g of 1.42 reached at the lowest Reynold
number. Skullong et al. [9], presented an experimental study to
augment of heat transfer in SAHs with combined wavy-rib and
found as
5.8 times with the decrement of Re, PR and N.
 The Nut/Nup ratio decreased with the increment in Re, PR and N.
 The highest g were found of about 1.83 and 1.41 with PR = 2 and
N = 2 of the Re in a range of between 3000 and 7500,
respectively.
 Empricial equations for Nu, f and g were derived and compared
with experimental results. And also, comparison results have
given in good agreement within ±10% with experimental
results.
2.5
 Effects of the PR were compared with the N and PR exhibited a
good performance according to the N in SAHs.
 This study will greatly contributed both heat transfer augmen-
tation and literature in terms of the use of renewable energy
instead of heat flux electric heater.
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 Desalination 399 (2016) 78–87

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Desalination

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/desal

Design and performance improvement of a solar desalination system by

using solar air heater: Experimental and theoretical approach
Farooq R. Siddiqui a, Nabil A.S. Elminshawy b,⁎, Mohammad F. Addas c
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia
b
Mechanical Engineering Department, Port Said University, Egypt
c
Industrial Engineering Department, Islamic University of Madinah, Saudi Arabia

H I G H L I G H T S

• Solar air heater (SAH) increased the induced air temperature by 3–4 °C.
• SAH increased the mass transfer coefficient up to 167%.
• SAH increased daily productivity up to 72%.
• SAH increased daily average Gained Output Ratio (GOR) up to 57%.
• SAH reduced Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) up to 170%.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper focuses on the design and performance improvement of a recently developed solar humidification-de-
Received 11 April 2016 humidification (HDH) desalination system comprising centrifugal air blower, humidification chamber equipped
Received in revised form 5 August 2016 with two electric water heaters (500 W each) and a condenser. To improve the design and performance of this
Accepted 14 August 2016
desalination system, a solar air heater was used before the humidification chamber to pre-heat the induced am-
Available online 20 August 2016
bient air. Two sets of experiments (I and II) were performed in January 2015 under the similar ambient condi-
Keywords:
tions for all the test days in Madinah (24° 28′ 06″ N, 39° 36′ 51″ E), Saudi Arabia. Experiment set-I was
Solar air heater performed without solar air heater and with two electric water heaters whereas experiment set-II was performed
Humidification-dehumidification with solar air heater and one electric water heater. The results show that daily productivity and Gained Output
Desalination Ratio (GOR) significantly increased in experiment set-II compared to experiment set-I whereas the Specific En-
Productivity ergy Consumption (SEC) and cost per liter of fresh water produced in experiment set-II was greatly reduced com-
pared to that of experiment set-I for the studied range of induced air flow rates.
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Energy intensive production of potable water develops a need to use

The importance of fresh water has been highly pronounced recently
due to rapid growth in global population, industrialization and urbani-
zation. Around 97% of water on earth is not directly available for con-
sumption due to high water salinity and that only 3% is fresh and used
for consumption as potable water [1,2]. Many countries in Middle East
and North Africa (MENA) including Saudi Arabia are arid, and they are
facing great challenges due to limited natural resources of drinking
water. Seawater desalination is the most practical solution for these
areas which is being used as a source of fresh water for domestic, indus-
trial and agricultural applications [3].
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: profminshawy@gmail.com (N.A.S. Elminshawy).
renewable energy technologies. Seawater desalination using renewable
energy technologies is an effective way to reduce the impact of conven-
tional desalination systems [4] on environment. Furthermore, global
warming and climate change is a major constraint for technologies
that utilize fossil fuels for seawater desalination [5]. Solar energy
which is abundantly available in MENA region, particularly in Saudi Ara-
bia, can be used to produce potable water at low cost [6].
Much research has been directed at addressing the challenges to
meet the energy demands using solar desalination systems. Different
solar powered desalination systems have been investigated such as re-
verse osmosis, membrane distillation, multi-effect desalination, adsorp-
tion desalination and vapor compression desalination but solar stills
and humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination systems got
special attention due to simplicity in their design [7–11]. Al-Sulaiman
et al. [12] studied the performance of HDH system with parabolic trough

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2016.08.015
0011-9164/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 F.R. Siddiqui et al. / Desalination 399 (2016) 78–87 79

configurations to achieve highest productivity and power and cost sav-

Nomenclature
ing. Their analysis showed that locating the evaporative cooler after the
mixing of fresh air with the return air remarkably increased the produc-
AMC annual maintenance cost
tivity. Shazly et al. [16] used pulsating water flow in HDH desalination
ASV Annual Salvage Value
unit for productivity enhancement. Their results showed that pulsating
ARC Annual Running Cost
frequency 20/60 on/off time gave the highest productivity. The daily
AC annual cost
productivity achieved in their experiments was in the range 15–25 L/
AY annual yield
m2. El-Agouz [17] experimentally studied the effect of water tempera-
a accuracy
ture, air flow rate and water level on productivity in HDH desalination
Ac humidification chamber area, m2
setup. He stated that maximum productivity of the system reached to
CRF Capital Recovery Factor
8.22 kg/h at water temperature 86 °C and air mass flow rate 14 kg/h. Dif-
Cp,a specific heat capacity of air, J kg−1 K−1
ferent parametric studies have also been performed for performance
DAB mass diffusivity, m2/s
optimization of HDH desalination units [18,19].
Ey annual energy consumption, kW h
Among other notable desalination systems based on solar energy,
FAC First Annual Cost
solar stills have been considered by many researchers in the recent
GOR Gained Output Ratio
years. Different types of solar stills have been studied which include
hcv average convection heat transfer coefficient,
basin type still, wick type still, diffusion type still, stepped solar still
Wm−2 K−1
and sloped type still [20]. Still productivity is mainly affected by the pa-
hm average mass transfer coefficient, m/s
rameters such as solar radiation, basin water depth, glass cover material,
hfg latent heat of vaporization, J kg−1
thickness and its inclination, ambient air temperature and wind velocity
I solar irradiance, W m−2
[21–23]. Different correlations have been proposed to predict the pro-
i annual interest rate
ductivity of the solar still based on these parameters [24]. In order to
L chamber length, m
overcome the intermittency caused by solar radiation, different phase
mev hourly evaporated mass per unit chamber area, kg m−2
_a change materials (such as paraffin wax and paraffin oil) and sensible
m induced air mass flow rate, kg/s
heat storage materials (such as sand and gravel) have been proposed
P duct perimeter, m
[25–27]. Due to the low productivity of solar still, much research has
p initial investment on proposed desalination system
been extended to augment its productivity. Different techniques such
Q_ ewh power of electric water heater, W
as using fins in the still basin, asphalt basin liner, solar water heater,
Q_ cv convective heat transfer rate, W
solar tracking, external reflector, multiple stages and stills integrated
Q_ev evaporative heat transfer rate, W
with mini solar ponds have been proposed to enhance the productivity
SEC Specific Energy Consumption, kWh m−3
[28–34].
SFF Sinking Fund Factor
Elminshawy et al. [35] recently modified the solar still into an HDH
S salvage value
desalination system by using an air blower at still inlet, a condenser at
Ta,o air temperature at chamber outlet, K
still outlet and glass cover positioned horizontally. The objective of
Ta,i air temperature at chamber inlet, K
this modification was to improve the low productivity in solar stills
Ts surface water temperature, K
which was increased up to 30 L/m2 in their experiments. The current re-
ΔTlm log-mean temperature difference, K
search is an effort to further improve the design as well as the perfor-
t time, s
mance of the desalination system developed by Elminshawy et al. [35]
u standard uncertainty
by using the solar air heater. It is hypothesized that using solar air heater
xo humidity ratio at chamber outlet, kg kg−1 of dry air
before humidification chamber increases the productivity since heating
xi humidity ratio at chamber inlet, kg kg−1 of dry air
the air increases its capacity to hold moisture. Following are the objec-
Z electricity cost per kWh
tives of this research work:
Symbols
ρa density of air, kg m−3 • To improve the performance and productivity of the desalination sys-
ρw density of water, kg m−3 tem by using solar air heater.
ρo density of saturated vapor at chamber outlet, kg m−3 • To reduce electric energy consumption by reducing the number of
ρi density of saturated vapor at chamber inlet, kg m−3 electric water heaters used inside the humidification chamber.
ρs density of saturated vapor at surface water temperature • To study the effect of induced air flow rate on productivity.
inside chamber, kg m−3 • To estimate the cost of proposed desalination system.
Δρlm log-mean density difference
α thermal diffusivity, m2/s

2. Experimental setup

The experimental test rig comprising air blower, humidification

solar collector used as an air heater. They concluded that GOR of HDH
system was increased to an average value of 4.7 with solar collector
used between the humidifier and dehumidifier compared to 1.5 with
solar collector used before the humidifier. Kabeel et al. [13] performed
experimental investigation on HDH desalination system with both
forced and natural air circulation. They determined that forced-down
air circulation gives higher performance than forced-up and natural
air circulation. Zamen et al. [14] studied multi-stage HDH desalination
process in an arid area to improve the overall efficiency of the system.
They concluded that 2-stage process is the best choice from cost and
performance point of view. Nada et al. [15] proposed a hybrid air-condi-
tioning and HDH desalination system and identified different
chamber and condenser is shown in Fig. 1(a). Fig. 1(b) shows the
same experimental setup but with solar air heater used between the
air blower and humidification chamber. Experiment set-I (with two
electric water heaters and without solar air heater) was performed for
four consecutive days from Jan 04 to Jan 07, 2015 while experiment
set-II (with one electric water heater and solar air heater) was per-
formed from Jan 11 to Jan 14, 2015 as shown in Table 1. Each set of ex-
periments was conducted for four different values of induced air flow
rate. These values were not selected randomly but measured with re-
spect to the adjustable knob setting (1–4) on air blower as shown in
Table 1. A constant air flow rate was used on each test day to study its
effect on daily potable water productivity for four consecutive days of
80 F.R. Siddiqui et al. / Desalination 399 (2016) 78–87

Table 2
Design details of components used in the proposed experimental setup.

Components Details

Humidification 1.5 m × 0.8 m × 0.25 m, galvanized steel

chamber
Reflecting mirror 1.2 m × 0.75 m, hinged at 20°
Air blower Centrifugal, 500 W
Electric water 500 W
heater
Condenser Shell and tube heat exchanger, copper tubes with inner
diameter 0.01 m and total length 15 m

chamber and reflecting mirror were used to heat water inside the cham-
ber using solar energy. Electric water heater remains completely im-
mersed in water all the time during the experiments since water was
maintained at a constant level (15 cm from chamber base) inside the
chamber. A space of 10 cm height above the water level was left for in-
duced air to carry water vapor into the condenser as shown in Fig. 3.
Seawater was used inside the condenser to condense the vapor into
fresh water. Water used in the proposed desalination system came
from the treatment plant where sea water was pretreated against differ-
ent types of fouling (such as biological fouling, particle fouling and col-
loidal fouling) using chlorination, coagulation and filtration techniques.

3. Uncertainty analysis

Measuring instruments used in the proposed desalination setup

Fig. 1. Experimental test rig (a) without solar air heater (b) with solar air heater.
with their accuracy, range and standard uncertainty are shown in
Table 3. Multi-function hot wire anemometer (Kanomax Climomaster
6501) was used to measure the air velocity, temperature and relative
humidity of induced air. Pyranometer (Hukseflux LP02) was used to
measure the solar radiation flux with and without reflecting mirror.
Thermocouple (K-type digital) was used to measure the temperature
of water inside the humidification chamber. The standard uncertainty
for each measuring instrument was determined using the following re-
lation [36]:

each set of experiments. Similar ambient conditions and solar radiation pffiffiffi
u ¼ a= 3 ð1Þ
intensity were observed for all the test days. Parameters such as solar
radiation, ambient temperature, water temperature inside the humidi-
where a is the accuracy and u is the standard uncertainty.
fication chamber, induced air temperature at solar air heater inlet and
outlet and relative humidity at humidification chamber inlet and outlet
4. Mathematical modeling
were measured every hour from 8 AM to 5 PM.
The design details of the proposed experimental setup are given in
Mathematical modeling of the proposed desalination system was
Table 2. Experimental test rig configuration for first set of experiments
performed on Engineering Equation Solver (EES). Induced air tempera-
(I) is the same as was used in the previous study by Elminshawy et al.
ture at humidification chamber inlet (Ta , i) and outlet (Ta , o), induced
[35]. For second set of experiments (II), solar air heater was used to pre-
_ a) and surface temperature of water inside the hu-
air mass flow rate (m
heat the induced atmospheric air before it enters the chamber as shown
in Fig. 3. Small cylindrical pipes each 1 inch diameter with staggered ar- midification chamber (Ts) were used to determine the theoretical hour-
rangement was used inside the solar air heater to increase the turbu- ly evaporated mass inside the humidification chamber. The
lence and hence the induced atmospheric air temperature at experimental hourly evaporated mass per unit chamber area was deter-
humidification chamber inlet as shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b). Water inside mined using the following equation [35]:
the humidification chamber was heated by electric water heater and
solar radiation. A transparent glass cover at the top of humidification _ a ðxo −xi Þt=Ac
mev; exp ¼ m ð2Þ

Table 1
Design of experiments.

Test days Air blower knob position Induced air flow rate (kg/s) Number of electric water heaters Solar air heater

Set of experiments I Jan 04 1 0.017 2 No

Set of experiments II
Jan 05 2 0.034
Jan 06 3 0.052
Jan 07 4 0.071
Jan 11 1 0.017 1 Yes
Jan 12 2 0.034
Jan 13 3 0.052
Jan 14 4 0.071
 F.R. Siddiqui et al. / Desalination 399 (2016) 78–87 81

Fig. 2. (a) Staggered arrangement of black coated small pipes inside solar air heater (b) solar air heater with black coated base and staggered pipes.

where t = 3600 s since the data was measured every hour from 8 AM to The theoretical hourly evaporated mass per unit chamber area was
5 PM. The humidity ratio at chamber inlet (xi) and outlet (xo) was deter- determined using the following equation [37]:
mined from the psychometric chart using the hourly data for relative
humidity and induced air temperature measured at chamber inlet and mev ¼ hm tΔρlm ð8Þ
outlet respectively. Convection heat transfer rate inside the humidifica-
tion chamber is given as [37]: Δρo −Δρi
Δρlm ¼ ð9Þ
ln ðΔρo =Δρi Þ
 
Q_ cv _ a C p;a T a;o −T a;i
¼m ð3Þ
where Δρ= ρs − ρ. Since both sets of experiments (I and II) used elec-
tric water heaters inside the humidification chamber, it is important
Assuming a constant surface water temperature inside the humidifi-
to evaluate the performance of both the experimental setups using Spe-
cation chamber (Ts), the Newton's law of cooling can be applied to find
cific Energy Consumption (SEC) given as:
the average convection heat transfer coefficient as shown in the follow-
ing equation [37]:  
SEC ¼ ρw Q_ ewh Ac =mev ð10Þ

Q_ cv ¼ hcv Ac ðΔT lm Þ ð4Þ

Both sets of experiments used solar energy for evaporation inside
ΔT a;o −ΔT a;i the humidification chamber, therefore, Gained Output Ratio (GOR) is
ΔT lm ¼   ð5Þ given as follows:
ln ΔT a;o =ΔT a;i

GOR ¼ Q_ ev =IAc ð11Þ

where ΔTa = Ts − Ta. Log-mean temperature difference in Eq. (4) was
used instead of the arithmetic temperature difference due to the expo-
where,
nential temperature decay of induced air between the chamber inlet
and outlet [37]. From heat-mass transfer analogy, Q_ ev ¼ mev hfg Ac =t ð12Þ
.  2=3
h α
cv m ¼ ρa C p;a =DAB ð6Þ
h
5. Results and discussion
−1 2
where DAB = 0.26 × 10 m /s [37].
5.1. Temperature and performance characteristics
Average mass transfer coefficient (hm) calculated in Eq. (6) was used
to find the density of saturated vapor at chamber outlet given as:
Each set of experiment was performed for four consecutive clear
  sunny days under the similar ambient conditions. The ambient air tem-
_a
ρo ¼ ρs þ ðρi −ρs Þ exp −ρa hm PL=m ð7Þ perature from 8 AM to 5 PM ranged between 14 °C and 26 °C on all the

Fig. 3. Schematics of the proposed desalination setup.

82 F.R. Siddiqui et al. / Desalination 399 (2016) 78–87
Table 3
Experimental instruments with accuracy, range and standard uncertainty.
Instrument Accuracy
Multi-function hot wire anemometer
Air velocity 0.015 m/s
Temperature 0.5 °C
Relative humidity 2.0%
Pyranometer 0.025 W/m2
Thermocouple 0.1 °C
Measuring beaker 10 mL
test days with an average hourly increment of 1 °C as shown in Fig. 4.
Solar air heater (used in experiment set-II) increases the induced air
temperature by 3–4 °C as illustrated in Fig. 4. Heating the induced air in-
side the solar air heater expands it which increases its capacity to hold
water vapor inside the humidification chamber thus resulting in high
potable water productivity. The black coated base of solar air heater
emits the absorbed solar radiation which increases the induced air tem-
perature prior to its entry into the heater. Therefore, the daily average
temperature at solar air heater inlet in experiment set-II is 4–8 °C higher
than the induced air temperature at chamber inlet in experiment set-I.
The daily average induced air temperature at humidification chamber
inlet (Thc,i) in experiment set-II is 7–13 °C higher than that of experi-
ment set-I. The daily average induced air temperature at chamber
inlet (Thc,i) in experiment set-I nearly remains unaffected by its flow
rate but in experiment set-II, it is 39 °C, 38 °C, 41.8 °C and 42.2 °C for in-
duced air flow rate 0.017 kg/s, 0.034 kg/s, 0.052 kg/s and 0.071 kg/s re-
spectively. High induced air temperature at flow rates 0.052 kg/s and
0.071 kg/s is due to the increased air turbulence caused by the staggered
arrangement of cylindrical pipes inside the solar air heater.
The variation of daily average mass transfer and heat transfer coeffi-
cients with induced air flow rate is shown in Fig. 5. It can be observed
that heat and mass transfer coefficients are almost the same for both
sets of experiments at low values of induced air flow rate (0.017 kg/s)
but the difference increases sharply in their respective values between
experiment set-I and II as the flow rate increases up to 0.052 kg/s. The
daily average heat transfer coefficient in experiment set-II exceeds by
36%, 137% and 103% compared to that of experiment set-I at flow
rates 0.034, 0.052 and 0.071 kg/s respectively. Similarly, the daily
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Temperature (°C)
50
40
30
20
10
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Time (hours)
Fig. 4. Instantaneous plots of ambient air temperature (Tamb), induced air temperature at solar air heater inlet (Tsah,i) and induced air temperature at humidification chamber inlet (Thc,i) for
experiment set I and II.
Range Standard uncertainty
0.01–50.0 m/s 8.6 × 10−3 m/s
−20–70 °C 0.28 °C
2.0–98.0% 1.15%
0–2000 W/m2 14.4 × 10−3 W/m2
−50–300 °C 5.7 × 10−2 °C
0–1000 mL 5.77 mL
average mass transfer coefficient in experiment set-II is 167%, 165%
and 95% higher than that of experiment set-I for flow rates 0.034,
0.052 and 0.071 kg/s respectively.
The hourly plots (theoretical and experimental) of productivity and
solar radiation for both sets of experiments are illustrated in Fig. 6. The
productivity increases with solar radiation until it reaches a peak value
around 12–2 PM. However, the productivity increases more sharply
with solar radiation at high induced air flow rates. The productivity
does not decrease with the drop of solar intensity from 12 PM (or
1 PM) onwards due to electric water heater and high internal energy
of water inside the humidification chamber. The effect of solar air heater
on productivity is not significant at low induced air flow rates
(≤0.017 kg/s) but as the flow rate was increased above 0.034 kg/s, a con-
siderable difference in hourly productivity was observed between the
two sets of experiments as shown in Fig. 6.
The comparison between the daily productivity for both sets of ex-
periments is shown in Fig. 7. The difference in daily productivity be-
tween the two sets of experiments is only 1.3 L/m2 at flow rate
0.017 kg/s. But the difference becomes significantly high as 5.9, 28.3
and 22 L/m2 at flow rates 0.034, 0.052 and 0.071 kg/s respectively.
The Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) for both sets of experiments
at different induced air flow rates is shown in Fig. 8. It can be seen that
SEC for experiment set-II is lower than experiment set-I due to high pro-
ductivity and less number of electric water heaters used. The high pro-
ductivity in experiment set-II despite the low electric power
consumption is mainly attributed by solar air heater. It can also be no-
ticed that SEC declines sharply from 8 to 11 AM due to the sharp in-
crease of hourly productivity. The daily average SEC (in kWh/m3) for
50
Tsah,i
Thc,i (I)
40 Thc,i (II)
Tamb (I)
30 Tamb (II)
20
10
 F.R. Siddiqui et al. / Desalination 399 (2016) 78–87 83

Fig. 5. Variation of daily average mass and heat transfer coefficients with induced air flow rate.

experiment set-I and II is 738, 392, 310, 306 and 486, 202, 115, 124 at
flow rates 0.017, 0.034, 0.052 and 0.071 kg/s respectively.
Gained Output Ratio (GOR) for both sets of experiments at different
flow rates is shown in Fig. 9. GOR increases gradually with time for both
sets of experiments from 8 AM–1 PM due to the simultaneous increase
of solar intensity and productivity. However, it increases sharply from 2
to 5 PM due to the decrease of solar intensity. The difference in GOR be-
tween experiment set I and II is not significant at low values of induced
air flow rate but it becomes considerable at high flow rates. The daily
average GOR for experiment set-I and II is 2, 3.5, 4.6, 5.3 and 2.3, 4.5,
7.2, 7.3 for flow rates 0.017, 0.034, 0.052, 0.071 kg/s respectively.
5.2. Comparison of proposed HDH desalination setup with other HDH desa-
lination systems
Table 4 shows the comparison of maximum daily productivity for
the proposed HDH desalination system with other HDH desalination
systems. It must be noted that maximum daily productivity in

Fig. 6. Variation of productivity (analytical and experimental) and solar radiation with time for both sets of experiments (I and II).
84 F.R. Siddiqui et al. / Desalination 399 (2016) 78–87

Fig. 7. Comparison of daily productivity for both sets of experiments (I and II) at various induced air flow rates.

experiment set-I was achieved at flow rate 0.071 kg/s in contrast to ex-
periment set-II in which it was achieved at 0.052 kg/s. Ben and Gabssi
[38] experimentally studied the productivity by passing air over the sea-
water. El-Shazly et al. [16] used pulsed water flow to intensify the pro-
ductivity of their HDH system. Kabeel and El-Said [39] proposed a
hybrid solar HDH desalination system and water flashing evaporation.
Ben [40] studied a solar HDH prototype and Yuan and Zhang [41] stud-
ied the closed circulation solar HDH system. It can be observed from
Table 4 that proposed HDH desalination setup (experiment set-II)
gives a significantly high daily productivity compared to other HDH de-
salination systems.
5.3. Cost estimation
It is important to estimate and compare the cost per liter of two
desalination systems discussed in this paper to assess the economic
feasibility of the proposed system. The cost estimation for the pro-
posed desalination system was performed using the procedure ex-
plained by Esfahani et al. [42], Kabeel et al. [43], Govind and Tiwari
[44], Fath et al. [45]. The cost breakdown of HDH systems developed
for experiment set-I and II is shown in Table 5. If the lifetime (n) of
the considered HDH system is assumed as 5 years and the annual in-
terest rate (i) as 12%, the Capital Recovery Factor (CRF) and Sinking

Fig. 8. Hourly variation of Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) for both sets of experiments (I and II).
 F.R. Siddiqui et al. / Desalination 399 (2016) 78–87 85

Fig. 9. Variation of Gained Output Ratio (GOR) with time for both sets of experiments (I and II).

Fund Factor (SFF) is given as: (ARC) of these components can be determined from the annual energy
  consumption which is given as:
CRF ¼ ið1 þ iÞn = ð1 þ iÞn −1 ð13Þ
  Ey ¼ 365ðW airblow  W ewh Þt ð17Þ
SFF ¼ i= ð1 þ iÞn −1 ð14Þ

If the cost of electricity is 0.137 SAR per kWh [46], the Annual Run-
First Annual Cost (FAC) which is the product of initial investment of ning Cost is given as:
the HDH system (p) and Capital Recovery Factor (CRF) is given as:

FAC ¼ p  CRF ð15Þ ARC ¼ Ey Z ð18Þ

The product of Salvage Value (50% of reusable materials) and Sink- The Annual Cost (AC) is given as:
ing Fund Factor (SFF) gives the Annual Salvage Value (ASV) written as:
AC ¼ FAC þ AMC þ ARC−ASV ð19Þ
ASV ¼ SFF  S ð16Þ

where AMC is the annual maintenance cost which is taken as 15% of

Air blower and electric water heaters in the considered HDH desali-
FAC. Cost of potable water per liter is finally determined by dividing
nation system were powered by electricity. The Annual Running Cost
the Annual Cost (AC) with annual yield (AY):

Table 4 Cost=liter ¼ AC=AY ð20Þ

Comparison of the proposed HDH desalination setup with other HDH desalination
systems.

Reference Operating parameters Maximum

The cost estimation of both desalination systems is shown in Table 6.
daily It can be observed that estimated cost per liter of fresh water produced
productivity in experiment set-I is around 90% more as compared to that produced in
(L) experiment set-II for the studied range of induced air flow rates.
Current study Air flow rate = 0.071 kg/s; avg. induced air 43.9
(experiment temperature at humidifier inlet = 31 °C Table 5
set-I) Cost breakdown of HDH desalination systems.
Current study Air flow rate = 0.052 kg/s; avg. induced air 67.8
(experiment temperature at humidifier inlet = 42 °C Components Cost (SAR)
set-II)
Experiment-I Experiment-II
Ben and Gabssi Air flow rate = 0.002 kg/s; initial air 48
[38] temperature = 26–31 °C Galvanized steel and stand 1300 1300
El-Shazly et al. Air flow rate = 0.001 kg/s 20 Electric water heaters 200 100
[16] Solar air heater – 120
Kabeel and Air flow rate = 0.12–0.32 kg/s 32.6 Glass cover 150 150
El-Said [39] Air blower 300 300
Ben [40] Air flow rate = 0.01 kg/s 20 Condenser 500 500
Yuan and Zhang Solar Collector Area = 10 m2 38 Insulation 100 100
[41] Total 2550 2570
86 F.R. Siddiqui et al. / Desalination 399 (2016) 78–87

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 Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Case Studies in Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/csite

Analytical approach for evaluation of thermo hydraulic

performance of roughened solar air heater
Vipin B. Gawande a,n, A.S. Dhoble a, D.B. Zodpe a, Sunil Chamoli b
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, D.I.T. University, Dehradun, India

a r t i c l e i n f o abstract

Article history: Mathematical modeling and simulations are seen as vital methodologies to predict the
Received 1 February 2016 thermal performance optimization of thermal systems. Solar air heater roughened with
Received in revised form 20° angled rib is simulated using an algorithm developed in MATLAB to predict the op-
4 March 2016
timal set of design and operating parameters. Correlations developed using second order
Accepted 12 March 2016
Available online 13 March 2016
polynomial are used for simulations. In the entire range of flow rates, the thermal effi-
ciency of the roughened solar air heater is higher as compared to smooth duct. In fixed
Keywords: value of solar insolation, thermal efficiency increases with the increase in mass flow rate
Angled square ribs while effective efficiency decreases. The effective efficiency of the system increases with
Solar air heater
an addition in the number of glass covers and width of the duct. Thermal and effective
Artificial roughness
efficiency increases with the increase in solar insolation. An increase in velocity increases
Heat transfer enhancement
Friction factor the convective heat transfer coefficient of air, which reduces the useful heat gain by in-
MATLAB creasing the top losses which in turn affects the increase in effective efficiency for the rise
in velocity in the solar air heater. The effect of mass flow rate, the number of glass covers,
heat flux, velocity and variation in width of duct on thermal and effective efficiencies of
roughened solar air heater are presented in the form of plots in the present study.
& 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction

A solar air heater is a thermal system which is used to convert solar energy into thermal energy. A wider application of
solar air heater involves drying of agricultural and marine products, space heating and heating of buildings to maintain
comfort in the winter season. Solar fish dryers are very useful for small fisherman groups. It has been noted that the
performance efficiency of solar air heater is very low because of low convective heat transfer coefficient between absorber
plate and flowing working fluid (air). The presence of a laminar viscous sub layer is the possible cause for low convective
heat transfer coefficient. The resistance to heat transfer arises due to this laminar viscous sub layer is eliminated by pro-
viding artificial roughness on the underside of the absorber plate. Many researchers investigated the effect of various
roughness geometries on heat transfer and friction characteristics in the solar air heater. The researchers have also de-
veloped mathematical algorithms as an analytical tool to simulate solar thermal systems and to optimize the thermal
performance of solar air heater. The optimization technique helps to predict an optimized set of designs and operating
parameters. Ahmad et.al. [1] experimentally investigated the effect of system and operating parameters, viz. geometry of

n
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: vipingawande@gmail.com (V.B. Gawande).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2016.03.003
2214-157X/& 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
20 V.B. Gawande et al. / Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31

Nomenclature Ue Edge loss coefficient, W m
2 K
1.

D Equivalent or hydraulic diameter of duct, mm. Dimensionless parameters

Ap Surface area of the absorber plate, m
2.
C Conversion factor. e/D Relative roughness height.
e Rib height, mm. f Friction factor.
F0 Heat removal factor. fr Friction factor for rough surface.
Fp Collector efficiency factor. fs Friction factor for smooth surface.
G Mass velocity of air, kg s
1 m
2. Nu Nusselt number.
h Heat transfer coefficient, W m
2 K
1. Nur Nusselt number of rough surfaces.
hw Convective heat transfer coefficient of wind, Nus Nusselt number of smooth surfaces.
W m
2 K
1. Pr Prandtl number.
W Height of the duct, mm. P/e Relative roughness pitch.
I Solar insolation, W m
2. Re Reynolds number.
K Thermal conductivity of air, W m
1 K
1. W/H Duct aspect ratio.
Ki Thermal conductivity of insulation, I Turbulence intensity,.
W m
1 K
1.
m Mass flow rate, kg s
1. Greek symbols
A0 Cross section area of orifice, m2.
W Width of the duct, mm.
μ Dynamic viscosity, N s m
2.
ΔP0 Pressure drop across orifice meter, N m
2.
ρ Density of air, kg m
3.
ΔPd Pressure drop across duct test section, N m
2.
ρm Density of manometer fluid, kg m
3.
Cp Specific Heat of air, J kg
1 K
1.
k Turbulent kinetic energy, m2 s
2.
L1 Inlet length of duct, mm.
β Ratio of orifice diameter to pipe diameter.
L2 Test length of the duct, mm.
υ Kinematic viscosity, m2 s
1.
L3 Outlet length of duct, mm.
θ Tilt angle of manometer, degree.
P Pitch, mm.
K Thermal diffusivity, m2 s
1.
U Mean airflow velocity in the duct, m s
1.
α Chamfer angle.
Cd Coefficient of discharge for orifice meter.
εp Emittance of plate.
u Air flow velocity in x direction, m s
1.
εg Emittance of glass cover.
υ Air flow velocity in y direction, m s
1.
ηth Thermal efficiency.
T Air temperature, K.
ηeff Effective efficiency.
Δh0 Difference in levels of U-tube manometer, m.
ηTr Transmission efficiency.
To Outlet temperature of air, K.
ηm Motor efficiency.
Ti Inlet temperature of air, K.
ηf Pump efficiency.
Tp Mean temperature of absorber plate, K.
τα Transmittance absorbtance product of glass
Qu Useful heat gain, W.
cover.
Tp Average plate temperature, K.
Tf Average air temperature, K.
Subscripts
N Number of glass covers.
L Length of the test section.
ΔT Bulk mean temperature of flowing fluid, K. THPP Thermo hydraulic performance parameter.
ΔT/I Temperature rise parameter, m2 KW
1. r Roughened.
UL Overall heat loss coefficient, W m
2 K
1. s Smooth.
Ut Top loss coefficient, W m
2 K
1. CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Ub Bottom loss coefficient, W m
2 K
1.

wire screen matrices, insolation, inlet temperatures and mass flow rates on thermohydraulic performance characteristics of
packed bed solar air heaters. Their study reported that relatively higher enhancement in the thermohydraulic efficiency has
been found corresponding to higher values of temperature rise parameter. They suggested that it would be advantageous to
use packed bed solar air heater when higher grade energy is required even when the insolation is relatively low. The effect
of roughness and operating parameters on the thermal as well as the hydraulic performance of roughened solar air heaters
was discussed and the thermohydraulic performance of roughened solar air heaters was compared with that of conven-
tional smooth solar air heaters by Gupta et. al. [2]. Their study found that the systems operating in a specified range of
Reynolds number shows better thermohydraulic performance depending upon the insolation. Thermohydraulic investiga-
tions on a packed bed solar air heater having its duct packed with blackened wire screen matrices of different geometrical
parameters (wire diameter and pitch) were carried out by Mittal et. al. [3]. The thermohydraulic performance of a solar air
heater was evaluated using a mathematical model and they reported that packed bed solar air heater is thermohydraulically
 V.B. Gawande et al. / Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31 21

efficient than flat plate collectors. A comparison of effective efficiency of solar air heaters having different types of geometry
of roughness elements on the absorber plate was carried out by Mittal et. al. [4]. Correlations for heat transfer and friction
factor developed by various investigators within the investigated range of operating and system parameters were used to
predict the effective efficiency. A stochastic iterative perturbation technique (SIPT) was implemented by Varun et. al. [5] to
obtain the optimized set of different solar air heating system and operating parameters i.e. the number of glass cover plate,
emissivity of the plate, mean plate temperature, rise in temperature, tilt angle and solar radiation intensity for different
Reynolds number. The results obtained were compared with the results obtained from genetic algorithm and random search
global optimization technique for smooth flat plate solar air heater. Chamoli et. al. [6] experimentally investigated the
performance of solar air heaters with V down perforated baffles as roughness on the air flow side of the absorber plate. A
mathematical model was developed to study the effect of ambient conditions, operating and design parameters on effective
efficiency of such solar air heaters. They found that thermal and effective efficiencies differ only marginally at lower flow
rates. The detail review of roughness geometries analyzed using experimental and CFD investigations are reported in au-
thors review papers [7,8]. CFD methodology to investigate roughened solar air heater is explained in author's research
papers [9–12].
In this paper the detailed analysis of a solar air heater is carried out using 20° angled square rib. The author has carried
out the experimental analysis of angled square rib [9] using angle in the range of 0°
40°. In all cases investigated, rib having
20° angle found to provide maximum thermo hydraulic performance at minimum pressure drop penalty and hence selected
for further analysis in the present paper. Thermal performance optimization of roughened solar air heater is carried out
using MATLAB code. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of mass flow rate, the number of glass covers, heat
flux, velocity and variation in width of duct on thermal and effective efficiencies of the roughened solar air heater.

2. Experimental set up

The schematic representation of experimental set up to study the effect of 20° angled square rib and test section
mounted on the absorber plate of solar air heater duct is shown in Fig. 1(a). Different configurations of 20° angled square rib
roughness (Fig. 1-b) used in experimental investigation is shown in Table 1. The main components of the flow system are a
blower, wooden rectangular duct, electric heater, G.I pipe, control valves, orifice plate, U-tube manometer, Micro Manometer
(MM), variable transformer, voltmeter, ammeter, thermocouples and mili-voltmeter. Air at room temperature enters a
rectangular duct (Width W¼0.1 m, Height H¼0.02 m, Aspect ratio W/H¼5, Hydraulic diameter, D¼0.033 m) because of
open circuit suction type high pressure blower. The rectangular duct consists of an entry section ¼ 0.245 m, test
section ¼0.280 m, exit section¼0.115 m, which was taken as per ASHRAE standards 93-77 [13] and previously used by

Fig. 1. (a) Schema-tic representation of experimental set up (b) Arrangement of angled square rib on absorber plate.
22 V.B. Gawande et al. / Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31

Table 1
Different configurations of 20° angled square rib roughness used in experimental investigation.

Roughness Configuration Hydraulic diameter of duct Rib height e Relative roughness height, Rib pitch P Relative roughness pitch,
D (mm) (mm) e/D (mm) P/e

Type-a 33.333 1.4 0.042 10 7.143

Type-b 15 10.714
Type-c 20 14.286
Type-d 25 17.857

Fig. 2. Variation of thermo-hydraulic performance parameter with Reynolds number for various chamfer angles (experimental results) [9].

Tanda [14]. A thin heater plate (0.1 m wide and 0.280 m long) was fabricated by combining series and parallel loops of
heating wire on an asbestos sheet and placed over 0.5 mm thick stainless steel plate which acts as an absorber plate. In
order to get uniform radiation between the electric heater and absorber plate, 1 mm thickness mica sheet was placed over
the electric heater wire. A uniform heat flux of 1000 W/m2 was maintained using variable transformer. The mass flow rate
was evaluated using a calibrated orifice meter connected with U –tube manometer. An orifice plate was designed for flow
measurement in 80 mm diameter pipe. A Micro Manometer (least count of 0.01 mm) was used to measure the pressure drop
across the test section. The plate temperature was measured using 10 copper constantan thermocouples (k-type and ϕ
0.3 mm diameter) provided over the plate and 6 thermocouples were used to measure temperature inside the duct. To
measure the output of the thermocouples, a mili-voltmeter was used. A glass wool was used as an insulator to reduce the
heat losses from 6 mm thick wooden panel. During operation of solar air heater, mass flow rate in the duct was adjusted
using control valve. Six values of mass flow rate were maintained to cover the entire range of Reynolds number. The
parameters like (i) Pressure drop across orifice plate (ΔP0),(ii) Inlet air temperature (Ti), (iii) Outlet air temperature (T0), (iv)
Temperature of the plate (Tp) and (v) Pressure drop across the test section (ΔPd) measured during the experimental in-
vestigation are used to investigate Nusselt number, friction factor and thermo-hydraulic performance parameter (THPP).

3. Results and discussion

Fig. 2 shows the variation of thermo-hydraulic performance parameter with a Reynolds number, for various angles using
experimental results [9]. It has been observed that the square rib with angle of 20° provides higher thermo-hydraulic
performance and hence used in the present paper for further thermal analysis.
Fig. 3 shows the variation of thermo-hydraulic performance parameter with a Reynolds number of different values of
relative roughness pitch at constant relative roughness height and angle of 20°. This angled square rib provides maximum
thermo-hydraulic performance parameter of 2.047, at relative roughness pitch (P/e) of 7.143, e/D ¼0.042 and Reynolds
number (Re) of 15,000 for the range of geometrical and operating parameters.
 V.B. Gawande et al. / Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31 23

Fig. 3. Variation of thermo-hydraulic performance parameter with Reynolds number, for different values of relative roughness pitch at constant relative
roughness height and chamfer angle of 20° (experimental results).

3.1. Development of correlations for Nusselt number and friction factor

In the present analysis, since the authors have focused on the specific angled square rib for predicting thermo hydraulic
performance of a solar air heater, it has been observed that average Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor (f) are strong
functions of flow and roughness geometry parameters. In the present analysis, these parameters are the Reynolds number
(Re) and relative roughness pitch (P/e). A regression analysis of the experimental data has been done to develop a statistical
correlation for the Nusselt number. The final correlation for Nu can be written as:

Nu = 0.0943 Re0.8248(P/e)−0.3022 (1)

A similar procedure has been adopted to develop a statistical correlation for friction factor on the basis of regression
analysis of data obtained from the experimental investigations. The final statistical correlation resulted for friction factor on
the basis of regression analysis has the form of,

f = 0.653 Re−0 .2883(P/e)−0 .2087 (2)

3.2. Analytical approach for roughened solar air heater

The co-author of this paper, Chamoli et al. [15] have presented the mathematical procedure for the evaluation of thermal
performance of roughened solar air heater which is described below. The rate of useful gain, by air flowing through the duct
of solar air heater can be evaluated in terms of mean plate temperature by using the following equations,
Q u = A p [I (τα ) − UL(TP − Ta)] (3)

Rate of useful energy gain, by air owing through the duct of solar air heater can also be evaluated by using the following
Hottel-Whillier-Bliss equation
Q u = A p FR[I (τα ) − UL(Ti − Ta)] (4)

Thermal efficiency and heat removal factor can be written as,

Qu T − Ta
ηth = = FR[(τα ) − UL( i )]
I. Ap I (5)
.
•
mCp ULA p Fp
FR = = [1 − exp( • )]
UL. A p mCp (6)

Thermal efficiency can be written in terms of outlet fluid temperature as,

T0 − Ti
ηth = F0[(τα ) − UL{ }]
I (7)
24 V.B. Gawande et al. / Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31

F0 can be evaluated using the following equation,

.
•
mCp ULA p F ′
F0 = = [exp( • ) − 1]
UL. A p mCp (8)

Useful energy gain is evaluated using the equations,

•
Q u = mCp(To − Ti ) (9)

Based on Eq. (5), thermal efficiency can be evaluated as,

•
mCp(To − Ti )
ηth =
I. Ap (10)

Thermo hydraulic performance of solar air heater is evaluated on the basis of effective efficiency and is written as,
Pm
Qu − C
ηeff =
I. Ap (11)

Where Pm is the mechanical energy consumption for propelling the air through the duct and can be evaluated by the
following equation,
•
mΔP
Pm =
ρ (12)

Factor ‘C’ is the conversion factor to convert mechanical energy and can be written as
C = ηThηTr ηmηf (13)

Pressure drop across the duct can be evacuated using the following relationship,

4fLV 2ρ
ΔP =
2D (14)

3.3. Mathematical model and MATLAB code formation to evaluate efficiencies

The geometrical and operating parameters considered for the evaluation of thermo hydraulic performance of the
roughened solar air heater are given in Table 2.
In order to determine the thermal efficiency from the Eq. (7), the value of UL and Fo can be evaluated as follows,
The overall heat loss coefficient is the sum of top, bottom and edge loss coefficients and written as,
UL = Ut + Ub + Ue (15)

The Ub - bottom loss coefficient is given below,

Table 2
Geometry and operating parameters for system.

Parameters Value/range

Geometrical parameters Variable Collector width (W), m 0.1–0.6

Number of glass covers (N) 1–3
Fixed Collector length (L),m 0.64
Transmittance-absorptance (τα) 0.8
Emittance of glass (εg) 0.88
Emittance of plate (εp) 0.9
Thickness of glass cover (tg), m 0.004
Thickness of insulation (tt), m 0.05
Thermal conductivity of insulation (Ki), W/m-K 0.037
Relative roughness pitch (P/e) 7.14
Relative roughness height (e/D) 0.042
Rib height (e), m 0.0014
Operating parameters Fixed Ambient temperature (Ta), K 300
Variable Temperature rise parameter (ΔT/I), m2 K/W 0.002–0.025
Wind velocity (Vw), m/s 1–10
Insulation (I), W/m2 500–1000
 V.B. Gawande et al. / Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31 25

Fig. 4. Flow chart for MATLAB code.

Fig. 5. Thermal efficiency comparison of roughened and smooth duct solar air heater for constant heat flux/Insolation (I) of 1000 W/m2.
26 V.B. Gawande et al. / Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31

ki
Ub =
ti (16)

The Ue - edge loss coefficient is given below,

(W + L ) × L1 × ki
Ue =
W × L × te (17)

The value of the top loss coefficient, Ut, is computed by assuming the value of plate temperature and using the equation
proposed by Kline [16].

N 1 −1 σ (Tp2 + Ta2)(Tp + Ta)

Ut = [ + ] +[ ]
ct Tp − Ta hw 2 × N + ft − 1
( ) (εp + 0.05 × N (1 − εp)) + −1
Tp N + ft ε g (18)

Where

h w = 5.7 + 3.8 × Vw

ct = 365.9[1 − 0.00883 × S + 0.0001298 × S2]

ft = [1 − 0.04 × h w + 0.0005 × h w2 ](1 + 0.09 × N )

The initial approximation of mean plate temperature to compute top loss coefficient is considered as,
T0 − Ti
Tp = + 10°C
2 (19)

Where

T0 = Ti + ΔT (20)

Rise in temperature of air is calculated as,

ΔT
ΔT =
I (21)

Useful energy gain (Qu1) is calculated by using Eq. (3) as,

Q u1 = A p [I (τα ) − UL(Tp − Ta)] (22)

To verify the value of useful energy gain calculated in Eq. (22): it is computed using equation as,

Q u2 = A p F0[I (τα ) − UL(T0 − Ti )] (23)

The collector efficiency factor (Fp) and heat removal factor (Fo) are determined as

Fig. 6. Variation of thermal efficiency of the roughened solar air heater with wind velocity for constant heat flux/ solar Insolation (I) of 1000 W/m2.
 V.B. Gawande et al. / Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31 27

Fig. 7. Variation of thermal efficiency of roughened solar air heater as a function of temperature rise parameter for different values of solar Insolation
(I¼ 1000 W/m2).

Fig. 8. Variation of thermal and effective efficiency with flow rate for fixed value of insolation (I ¼1000 W/m2).

h
Fp =
h + UL (24)

•
mCp A p ULFp
F0 = [1 − exp(− • )]
A p UL mCp (25)

Where convective heat transfer coefficient

NuK
h=
D (26)

The Nusselt number is calculated using the correlation developed in Eq. (1) from experimental results, as given below,

Nu = 0. 0943 Re0 .8248(P /e)−0 .3022 (27)

If the difference between Qu1 and Qu2 is found to be more than 0.1% of Qu1, then a new value of mean plate temperature
was computed using the following correlations as,
28 V.B. Gawande et al. / Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31

Fig. 9. Variation of effective efficiency of the roughened solar air heater with wind velocity for a fixed value of insolation, I ¼ 1000 W/m2.

Fig. 10. Variation of effective efficiency of the roughened solar air heater with duct width for a fixed value of insolation, I¼ 1000 W/m2.

Q u2
I (τα ) − Ap
Tp = Ta +
UL (28)

The above steps are repeated till the difference between Qu1 and Qu2 is in the desired range. The friction factor is
calculated using the correlations developed in Eq. (2) using the experimental results and is given below,

f = 0. 653 Re−0 .2883(P/e)−0 .2087 (29)

The thermal efficiency is calculated from useful heat gain Qu, the average Qu1 and Qu2, and defined as,

Qu
ηth =
I × Ap (30)

The effective efficiency is calculated from Eq. (11). The calculations are repeated for the next set of operating parameters
given in Table 1. The flow chart of the mathematical model used in MATLAB code is demonstrated below in Fig. 4.
 V.B. Gawande et al. / Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31 29

Fig. 11. Variation of effective efficiency of the roughened solar air heater with a number of glass covers for a fixed value of insolation, I¼ 1000 W/m2.

Fig. 12. Variation of effective efficiency of the roughened solar air heater with different values of insolation, I ¼1000 W/m2.

3.4. MATLAB simulation results

The MATLAB code is run for the various range of operating and geometrical parameters and various results are plotted
which are discussed here. The variation of thermal efficiency of roughened and smooth duct solar air heaters as a function of
flow rates is plotted in Fig. 5. It is observed that the thermal efficiency increases with the increase in flow rates. This is due to
reason that the increasing flow rate, the rate of heat transfer increases and hence enhancement in thermal efficiency is
noted. After a certain increase in flow rate, the temperature difference in the fluid is nearly become same and thus there is
no more increase in heat transfer occurred in the system and hence thermal efficiency starts saturating.
The other major observation from figure is that, for the entire range of flow rates, the thermal efficiency of the roughened
solar air heater is higher as compared to smooth duct. This is due to the insertion of artificial roughness in the form of the
angled square rib on the underside of the absorber plate. The presence of rib increases turbulent kinetic energy and thus
turbulent intensity in the system which in turn increases the rate of heat transfer.
The variation of thermal efficiency of the roughened solar air heater with wind velocity for constant values of insolation
is shown in Fig. 6. It is noted that the thermal efficiency of the roughened solar air heater decreases with an increase in wind
velocity from 1 m/s to 10 m/s. The reason behind this decrease is that with an increase in wind velocity the heat transfer
coefficient of the wind increases, which is responsible for the reduction of useful heat gain.
Variation of thermal efficiency of the roughened solar air heater as a function of temperature rise parameter for different
30 V.B. Gawande et al. / Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31

Fig. 13. Comparison of effective efficiency vs. Reynolds number for roughened and smooth air heaters.

values of solar Insolation (I ¼1000 W/m2) is shown in Fig. 7. The figure shows that thermal efficiency decreases with an
increase in the temperature rise parameter for all values of solar insolation. Thermal efficiency increases with the increase in
solar insolation value and is maximum for 1000 W/m2 due to increase in useful heat gain. The value of useful heat gain
decreases with decrease in solar insolation value and hence thermal efficiency also reduces as shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 8 shows a variation of thermal and effective efficiency for constant values of solar insolation for varying mass flow
rate. It has been observed that for a fixed value of solar insolation, thermal efficiency increases with the increase in mass
flow rate while effective efficiency decreases. At high flow rate, there is an increase in pumping power requirements and
hence there is a reduction in effective efficiency.
Variation of effective efficiency of the roughened solar air heater with wind velocity for a fixed value of insolation is
shown in Fig. 9. It has been found that the effective efficiency starts to increase with an increase in the temperature rise
parameter and attained a maximum value and then starts to decrease for further increase in the temperature rise parameter.
This happens due to reason that with an increase in the temperature rise parameter there is also an increase in corre-
sponding pumping power requirements in the system to propel the air and hence there is a reduction in useful heat gain
and thus the effective efficiency starts to decrease at higher temperature rise parameter values.
Another main observation from the Fig. 9, is that the effective efficiency shows maximum value for wind velocity of 1 m/s
and the lowest for 10 m/s. This is due to reason that, the increase in velocity increases the convective heat transfer coef-
ficient of air, which reduces the useful heat gain by increasing the top losses which in turn affects the increase in effective
efficiency for the rise in velocity in the solar air heater.
Variation of effective efficiency of the roughened solar air heater as a function of temperature rise parameter for different
values of duct width and for a fixed value of solar insolation is shown in Fig. 10. It has been observed that as the duct width
increases from 0.1 to 0.6, an increase in effective efficiency of the roughened solar air heater is noted. The high effective
efficiency is obtained at a higher duct width of 0.6 m. The effective efficiency attains a maximum value and then decreases
for further increase in the temperature rise parameter.
The variation of effective efficiency with a number of glass covers is shown in Fig. 11. The figure shows that as the
number of glass cover increases, an increase in effective efficiency is also noted along with the increase in the number of
glass covers. The increase in glass covers reduces the top losses with the surroundings which increases the useful heat gain
and thus the effective efficiency. The percentage increase from the single glass cover to second and third glass cover is in the
range of approximately 8% and 12% respectively.
The variation of effective efficiency as a function of temperature rise parameter for different values of solar insolation
values is shown in Fig. 12. It has been observed that the effective efficiency attains a maximum value and then decreases
with further increase in temperature rise parameter.
Fig. 13 is plotted to compare the effective efficiency of solar air heaters having different roughness geometries viz.
expanded metal mesh [16], V-shaped rib [17], wedged shaped rib [18] and small diameter protrusion wire [19]. Relative
roughness height (e/D) is considered as an important parameter of the roughness element for the calculation of effective
efficiency. The comparison graph is plotted with relative roughness height of 0.04. The figure shows that effective efficiency
tends to increase with the increase in Reynolds number for some interval and then again decreases for higher Reynolds
number. This happens due to the dominance of the mechanical power which is required to overcome the frictional forces in
the duct. It is observed that the effective efficiency corresponding to the higher values of roughness height is better in the
lower range of Reynolds number, however the value of effective efficiency is reversed in the higher range of Reynolds
 V.B. Gawande et al. / Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 8 (2016) 19–31 31

number. This happens due to fact that at lower Reynolds number, the increase in the friction losses in the duct is insig-
nificant with increase in relative roughness height, while the increase in heat transfer from roughened surface is quite
substantial due to increase of turbulence in the vicinity of roughened surface. The results obtained from present simulation
are in good agreement with the pattern followed by the previously available results.

4. Conclusions

Experimental analysis of two dimensional computational domain of solar air heater with angled square ribs of 20°
chamfer angle fitted on underside of absorber plate is simulated at varying relative roughness pitch, Reynolds number and
at constant relative roughness height. The following are the important out comings of the present experimental analysis –

1) The experimental analysis of angled square rib with chamfer angle varying from α¼0°–40° was conducted. The angled
square rib with 20° chamfer angle was found to provide better thermo hydraulic performance and hence selected for
further thermal analysis.
2) Among all cases investigated, better Thermo Hydraulic Performance Parameter (THPP) which indicates the optimum rib
configuration with maximum heat transfer enhancement and minimum pumping power with square rib of 20° chamfer
angle has been obtained as 2.047 at relative roughness pitch of 7.143, relative roughness height of 0.042 and a Reynolds
number of 15,000.
3) Statistical correlations presented for Nusselt number and friction factor could be used to generate a Nusselt number and
friction factor with reasonable accuracy.
4) The simulation of MATLAB code shows that the thermal efficiency tends to diminish with the increase in the temperature
rise parameter. Variation in thermal efficiency with different values of solar insolation shows the maximum value for the
higher value of solar insolation.
5) Thermal efficiency increases with the increase in mass flow rate while the effective efficiency decreases with an increase
in flow rates.
6) Effective efficiency attains a maximum value for variation of temperature rise parameter for different values of velocity
and then decreases for further increase in velocity.
7) Higher value of effective efficiency is obtained for higher values of duct width and for higher number of glass covers and
also for high values of solar insolation.

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