Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162

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

Investigation on performance enhancement due to staggered piece in

a broken arc rib roughened solar air heater duct
R.S. Gill a, 1, *, V.S. Hans b, J.S. Saini c, 2, Sukhmeet Singh b
a
Punjab Technical University, Kapurthala, India
b
School of Energy Studies for Agriculture, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004, India
c
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India

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

Article history: This paper presents an experimental investigation on heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of
Received 20 March 2016 solar air heater duct whose absorber is roughened with “broken arc rib combined with staggered rib
Received in revised form piece”. The duct has aspect ratio of 12 and the absorber is heated with uniform heat flux while others
18 November 2016
three walls are insulated. The rib roughness has fixed relative staggered rib position, relative roughness
Accepted 2 December 2016
Available online 2 December 2016
height, relative gap size, relative gap position, arc angle and relative roughness pitch of 0.4, 0.043, 1.0,
0.65, 30
and 10 respectively. The relative staggered rib size and Reynolds number were varied from 1 to
6 and 2000 to 16,000 respectively. The effect of staggered rib on the flow pattern has also been observed
Keywords:
Thermo-hydraulic performance
using ANSYS Academic Research CFD 15.0. The maximum enhancement in Nusselt number and friction
Friction factor factor over that of broken arc rib roughened duct under similar flow and boundary conditions has been
Rib roughness found to be 2.60 and 2.27 times respectively. The corresponding enhancements over that of smooth duct
Staggered rib are 3.06 and 2.50 times respectively. The thermo-hydraulic performance of duct roughened with present
Nusselt number rib roughness has been considerably enhanced and was found to be highest for relative staggered rib size
CFD of 4.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction have been done on conventional SAHs having rib roughness on

Solar air heaters (SAH) are the most common device for air
heating by transforming radiant energy to thermal energy. How-
ever, the conventional SAH have inferior thermal performance
because of low convective heat transfer coefficient between air and
absorber plate. The viscous sub-layer over heat transferring surface
is reported to be the main cause of this low convective heat transfer
coefficient. The use of rib roughness on absorber in conventional
SAH has found to be economical and effective way of improving the
convection heat transfer as presence of ribs on absorber breaks low
heat transfer viscous sub-layer and creates turbulence close to wall
without disturbing core flow. However the negative effect of using
rib roughness on absorber is that it increases pumping energy
requirement due to increased friction losses. Many investigations
* Corresponding author. Permanent address: Department of Mechanical Engi-
neering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Pb., 141004, India.
E-mail address: rsgillg@yahoo.com (R.S. Gill).
1
Research scholar.
2
Formerly.
absorber plate for the enhancement of heat transfer with least
pumping energy loss due to less fiction loss [1e7]. The use of rib
roughness for better cooling in gas turbine blades [8] and higher
heat transfer in compact heat exchangers [9] has also been
reported.
Literature survey reveals that investigations on rib roughness
started with transverse rib [10]. From further investigations, it has
been found that continuous inclined rib perform better than
transverse rib because of formation of two counter rotating sec-
ondary flow cells causing increase in local heat transfer [11]; and
the continuous V-shape [11,12], continuous arc-shape [13], multi V-
shape [14] and multi arc-shape [15] ribs are still better than in-
clined rib because of formation of more counter rotating secondary
flow cells. Further investigations on rib roughness geometries have
determined that gap in previously studied continuous ribs further
enhance the heat transfer due to accelerated flow through gap and
redevelopment of secondary flow [16e21]. Saini and Saini [13] re-
ported the advantage of arc shape over V shape geometry due to
less friction loss.
In an attempt of further heat transfer enhancement, few

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2016.12.002
0960-1481/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162
investigators placed a staggered rib piece in front of gap in trans-
verse, inclined and V-shaped geometries [22e26]. Investigators of
these geometries named these geometries as discrete rib, staggered
broken rib or broken rib combined with staggered rib piece
(Table 1). All these investigations on rib roughness geometries
having staggered rib piece reported the enhancement in thermal
and thermo-hydraulic performance due to considerable mixing of
two vortices moving along the staggered rib with the main flow on
both sides of staggered rib piece. Lau et al. [22] reported that the
average Stanton number for transverse discrete rib was about
10e15% superior to transverse continuous rib. The thermal per-
formance enhancement of 45
and 60
discrete rib was 11e32% and
5e19% than their continuous rib. The inclined discrete ribs (30, 45
and 60
) have comparable thermal performance and were about
20% higher than transverse discrete rib. Han and Zhang [23] re-
ported that 60
V-shape broken ribs or 60
parallel broken ribs
performed better than the 60
V-shape continuous ribs or 60

parallel continuous ribs. The heat transfer augmentation was 2.5e4
times for broken rib configurations and about 2e3 times for the
continuous rib configurations with 7e8 times of same pressure
drop penalty. Karwa et al. [25] conducted an experimental study to
find the effect of V-up discrete rib, and V-down discrete rib
roughened rectangular duct on heat transfer and friction. The rib
discretization of V rib was done by adding staggered rib piece in
between gap of broken V rib. It was observed that the enhancement
in Stanton number in case of V-up discrete rib and V-down discrete
rib over smooth duct was 93%e134% and 102%e142% respectively
whereas, the corresponding friction factor ratios for these ar-
rangements was 2.35e2.47 and 2.46e2.58. Study concluded that
between both rib arrangements, V-down discrete rib roughness has
highest thermo-hydraulic performance. Muluwork et al. [24] con-
ducted the experimental study on staggered discrete V-up and V-
down rib roughened solar air heater duct. In this study, staggered
discrete V-down rib is also reported to be better as compare to
staggered discrete V-up rib. Nusselt number and friction factor
increased with the increase of relative roughness length ratio and
maximum value of Nusselt number was reported for relative
roughness length ratio value of 9 in the investigated range of
relative roughness length ratio B/S from 3 to 9. The maximum
enhancement of Nusselt number and friction factor over smooth
duct was observed to be 2.2 and 2.8 respectively in the range of
system and operating parameters investigated. Similarly, Patil et al.
[26] reported that significant improvement in thermal and thermo-
hydraulic performance as a result of the use of staggered rib piece
in the inter-rib space of broken V-ribs. The Nusselt number and
friction factor increased with the increase of relative staggered rib
size and found maximum at relative staggered rib size of 2.5 in the
range of relative staggered rib size of (r/e) 1e2.5 investigated in this
study. The maximum enhancement in Nusselt number and friction
as compared to smooth duct was observed to be 3.18 and 2.87
respectively corresponding to optimum values of parameter
investigated in this study. The best thermo-hydraulic performance
has been observed to be 2.24 corresponding to a staggered rib size
of 2 in the range of parameters investigated.
From above review of literature, by realizing the advantage of
staggered rib piece in different rib roughness geometries [22e26]
along with the advantage of arc shape rib over other rib rough-
ness configurations [13], it is anticipated that duct roughened by
broken arc rib combined with staggered rib piece arrangement can
yield better performance as compare to broken arc rib without
staggered piece roughness arrangement and other similar rib
roughness arrangements having staggered rib piece. Therefore,
application of broken arc rib combined with staggered rib piece
roughness to solar air heater is worth exploring.
Keeping this in view, a new broken arc rib combined with
149
staggered rib piece geometry is proposed for investigation for heat
transfer and friction characteristics in the present study. The new
roughness of present study is formed by placing staggered rib piece
between the two consecutive gaps of broken arc rib. The effect of
staggered rib piece on Nusselt number and friction factor and its
optimum size is investigated. In order to determine the advantage
of present roughness geometry, the performance of present
roughness geometry is also compared with smooth duct, broken
arc rib without staggered rib roughened duct, and ducts roughened
with other rib roughness of previous studies having staggered rib
piece reported in previous studies. The rib geometry, parameters
range, experimental details, results, etc. are presented below:
2. Experimental program
To see the effect of relative staggered rib of broken arc rib
combined with staggered rib roughened duct on heat transfer and
friction in the flow, an open loop indoor test facility (Fig. 1) has been
designed and fabricated as per guidelines given in ASHRAE stan-
dard [27]. Its photograph is shown in Fig. 2. It consists of a 2440 mm
long rectangular wooden duct with a cross-section of 300 mm wide
(W) and 25 mm high (H) for air flow. Rectangular duct is divided
into three parts having entry, test and exit sections of 550 mm,
1000 mm and 890 mm length respectively. For complete devel-
opment of flow in the test section and minimum end effects in exit
section, the length of entry and exit section was made well above
recommended minimum entry and exit lengths of 433 mm
(5  √(W  H)) and 217 mm (2.5  √(W  H)) recommended by
ASHRAE [27]. The lower and the two side wooden walls of the
entire length of the duct are made smooth by pasting 1 mm thick
mica sheet while the top comprises 1 mm thick galvanized iron
sheet absorber plate which absorb heat from electric heater placed
above it and transmit this absorbed heat to air flowing under it. To
make duct resistant to heat loss, first 76 mm thick insulation of
glass wool was provided on the top side of electric heater and then
whole duct was covered with 50 mm thermocole (polystyrene)
insulation followed by 10 mm thick black foam sheet. For the
measurement of temperature of air at inlet and exit of test section
and absorber plate at nineteen points as shown in Fig. 3, calibrated
butt-welded copper-constantan thermocouples along with a digital
temperature indicator was used. The other parts of open loop in-
door test facility consists of a centrifugal blower with two control
valves for required air movement in duct, a calibrated orifice plate
for air flow measurement and a digital micro manometer for
pressure drop of air along the duct length.
To find the optimum staggered rib size, six broken arc rib
combined with staggered rib roughened plates were tested for
different relative staggered rib sizes as shown in Fig. 4. The
roughened plates were prepared by gluing circular wires on the air
flow side of the absorber plate in shape of broken arc rib combined
with staggered rib piece. Based on previous positive results of in-
vestigations by Muluwork et al. [24] and Karwa et al. [25], the arc
shape pointing downward direction is considered for this study.
The values of flow and roughness parameters based on optimum
values of previous investigations on arc ribs [13,21] used in present
study are given in Table 2.
The experimental data on rib roughened duct was collected as
per recommendations of ASHRAE Standard [27]. The roughened
plates having different values of relative staggered rib size were
tested. For performance comparison, a smooth plate and a broken
arc rib without staggered rib roughened plate operating under
similar flow conditions were also tested. At the start of each test
run, the blower was turned ON and gate valve was adjusted for
desired flow rate in the duct. To ensure proper functioning, all in-
struments were tested and all joints were checked for air leakage.
150 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162

Table 1
Different roughness geometries similar to present roughness geometry.

Investigators Configuration Roughness parameter Roughness geometry

Lau et al. [22] Transverse discrete rib and Inclined discrete rib Aspect ratio ¼ 1
e/Dh ¼ 0.0625
P/e ¼ 10
a ¼ 45
and 60

Re ¼ 10000e80000

Han and Zhang [23] Parallel broken rib and V-shape broken rib Aspect ratio ¼ 1
e/Dh ¼ 0.0625
P/e ¼ 10
a ¼ 60

Re ¼ 15000e90000

Muluwork et al. [24] Staggered discrete V- down rib Aspect ratio ¼ 12

P/e ¼ 10
e/Dh ¼ 0.05
p0 /p ¼ 0.4
a ¼ 60
B/S ¼ 9
Re ¼ 3032e17652

Karwa et al. [25] V- down discrete rib Aspect ratio ¼ 7.5

e/Dh ¼ 0.048
P/e ¼ 10
a ¼ 60
B/S ¼ 3.0
Re ¼ 2800e15000

Patil et al. [26] Broken V rib combined with staggered rib piece Aspect ratio ¼ 12
P/e ¼ 10
r/e ¼ 2.5
s0 /s ¼ 0.6
p0 /p ¼ 0.4
Re ¼ 3000e17000

The roughened plate was heated with 1000 W/m2 uniform heat 3. Data reduction
flux electric heater. During each test run, when the system reached
steady state condition, the data for inlet air temperature, rough- The Nusselt number (Nu) is determined by using eqn. (1):
ened plate temperature at nineteen points, outlet air temperature
at five points and pressure drop across orifice plate and test section hDh
Nu ¼ (1)
was recorded. Ka
 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162 151

Fig. 1. Schematic of the experimental setup.

Fig. 4. Schematic of different relative staggered rib size in broken arc rib.

Table 2
Values of flow and roughness parameters investigated.

Parameters Value(s)

Relative staggered rib size, r/g 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

Relative staggered rib position, p0 /p 0.4
Relative roughness pitch, p/e 10
Relative arc angle, a/90 0.333
Relative gap position, w0 /w 0.65
Relative gap width, g/e 1.0
Relative roughness height, e/Dh 0.043
Reynolds number, Re 2000e16000 (eight levels)

Q
h¼
 (2)
Ap tpm  tfm

where the rate of heat transfer from roughened plate to air (Q) is
determined by using eqn. (3):

Fig. 2. Photograph of the experimental set-up. _ p ðto  ti Þ

Q ¼ mC (3)
Air mass flow rate (m) in eqn. (3) was calculated from orifice
plate pressure drop ðDPo Þ using eqn. (4):

" #0:5
2raðDPÞo
m_ ¼ Cd Ao 4
(4)
1b
The friction factor (f) was determined from pressure drop
measured across the length of test section ðDPd Þ by using eqn (5):

Fig. 3. Location of thermocouples in test section of roughened plate.
In eqn. (1), the convective heat transfer coefficient (h) for test
section was determined from plate and air temperatures using eqn
(2):
2ðDPd ÞDh
f ¼ (5)
4LV 2 ra
In above calculations, thermo-physical properties of air such as
ra ; Ka ; b were determined using standard correlations [28] at bulk
mean temperature.
From data collected for all roughened absorber plates tested in
this experimental study, the range of uncertainty in Reynolds
number, Nusselt number and friction factor is ±1.62e2.49%,
±1.99e4.37% and ±3.16e4.94% respectively. The detailed uncer-
tainty analysis is illustrated in Appendix A.
152 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162

200
r/g = 1.0
180 r/g = 2.0
r/g =4.0
160
r/g = 5.0
140 r/g = 6.0
Broken arc rib without staggered rib piece
Nusselt number 120

100

80

60

40 Roughness parameters
p/e = 10, w'/w =0.65, α = 30°,
20 g/e =1.0, p'/p = 0.4, e/Dh = 0.043
0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000

Reynolds number

(a)

0.030
Roughness parameters
p/e = 10, w'/w =0.65, α = 30°,
g/e =1.0, p'/p = 0.4, e/Dh = 0.043
0.025

0.020
Fric on factor

r/g = 1.0
0.015 r/g = 2.0
r/g = 3.0
r/g = 4.0
0.010 r/g = 5.0
r/g = 6.0
Broken arc rib without staggered rib piece
0.005
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000

Reynolds number

(b)
Fig. 5. Nusselt number and friction factor as a function of Reynolds number for different relative staggered rib size.

4. Validity test
Dittus Boelter Equation : Nus ¼ 0:023 Re0:8 Pr0:4 (6)
For validation of experimental set-up, the values of Nusselt
number and friction factor determined for smooth duct in Reynolds
number range of 2000e16,000 were compared with the values Modified Blasius Equation : f s ¼ 0:085 Re0:25 (7)
predicted for a smooth rectangular duct by using correlation given
The low values of average absolute deviation of experimental
by Rohsenow et al. [29] and Bhati and Shah [30] in eqns (6) and (7),
values from estimated values for Nusselt number (±3.9%) and that
respectively.
for friction factor (±2.5%) ensure the good accuracy of data
 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162
Flow separaƟon
Flow through gap
Fig. 6. Velocity vectors on a plane passing through mid of rib gap and normal to absorber.
generated with the present experimental set-up.
5. Results and discussion
The effect of staggered rib piece and its size on heat transfer and
friction characteristics in case of solar air heater duct roughened
with broken arc rib combined with staggered rib piece are deter-
mined. Beside this, the experimental results obtained in present
study were compared with smooth duct, broken arc rib without
staggered rib piece and other rib roughness of previous studies
having staggered rib piece in order to determine the benefit of rib
roughness geometry used in the present study.
Fig. 5 show the variation of Nusselt number and friction factor
with Reynolds number (Re) for different relative staggered rib sizes
(r/g) and fixed values of other roughness parameters. It is observed
from Fig. 5(a) that the Nusselt number increases with the increase
in Reynolds number for all relative staggered rib sizes. This is
because as Reynolds number increases, the turbulent intensity in-
creases due to increase in turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent
dissipation rate. In addition to increase in turbulent intensity, the
increase in Reynolds number also results in decrease in distance of
flow reattachment point from upstream rib [31] and hence reduces
low heat transfer stagnant flow region between reattachment point
and its upstream rib. As both, increase in turbulent intensity and
reduction of low heat transfer stagnant flow region causes increase
in Nusselt number; therefore Nusselt number increases as Reynolds
number increases. On other hand, the friction factor is observed to
be decreased with the increase in Reynolds number for all values of
relative staggered rib sizes (Fig. 5(b)) as the thickness of viscous sub
layer decreases with increase in Reynolds number.
In order to see the staggered rib piece in broken arc rib, the
variation of Nusselt number and friction factor with Reynolds
number of broken arc rib without staggered rib piece has also been
plotted in Fig. 5 under similar flow conditions. It can be observed
from Fig. 5(a) that at all values of Reynolds number, the values of
Nusselt number for broken arc shaped ribs having staggered rib is
153
Staggered rib
Flow reaƩachment
more than broken arc rib without staggered rib piece. This happens
due to the presence of the staggered rib in front of the gap in arc rib,
a part of flow released from the gap separates from the heat
transferring surface on the upstream of the staggered rib, flows
over the staggered rib and then reattaches the heat transferring
surface on the downstream of the staggered rib whereas remaining
part of flow is obstructed by the staggered rib resulting in forma-
tion of two vortices which move along the sides of staggered rib to
mix with the main flow. This effect of staggered rib piece on the
flow pattern was also investigated using computational fluid dy-
namics (CFD) software ANSYS Academic Research CFD 15.0. For this
purpose, a 3D periodic geometry of roughened duct for rib pa-
rameters r/g ¼ 4, p0 /p ¼ 0.4, p/e ¼ 10, a/90 ¼ 0.333, w0 /w ¼ 0.65, g/
e ¼ 0.65 and e/Dh ¼ 0.043 was used as shown in Appendix B. For
solving the flow field, the turbulence model RNG k-ε with enhanced
wall treatment was used. The number of cells were 1,071,860 and
the convergence limit each for residual of continuity equation,
velocity components, k and ε was taken as 105. The results ob-
tained at Reynolds number of 6000 are shown in Figs. 6 and 7. In
Fig. 6, the velocity vectors on a plane passing through mid of rib gap
and normal to absorber have been drawn in order to view the
separation and reattachment of flow released through the gap. It
can be seen from this figure that the flow released from the gap
separates before staggered rib and then reattaches after passing
over the staggered rib. In order to view vortices formation around
staggered rib piece, the velocity vectors on a plane parallel to
absorber and at distance of 0.001 mm from absorber have also been
drawn in Fig. 7. From this figure it can be clearly observed that flow
obstructed by staggered rib piece form two vortices which move
along the sides of staggered rib piece and mix with main flow.
The above discussed combined effect of flow separation and
reattachment caused by the presence of staggered rib piece in front
of the gap along with the mixing of two vortices moving along the
staggered rib with the main flow results in enhancement of local
Nusselt number around staggered rib piece on the downstream
side of the gap thereby causing increase in average Nusselt number.
154 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162

Broken arc rib

Staggered rib

(a)

Staggered rib

VorƟces mix with main Flow

Flow through gap

Broken arc rib

(b)
Fig. 7. Velocity vectors on a plane parallel to absorber and at distance of 0.001 mm from absorber (a) full view (b) close view near staggered rib.

It is also observed from Fig. 5(a) that as the Reynolds number is
increased, the Nusselt number increase is more for broken arc ribs
with staggered rib piece as compared to broken arc rib without
staggered rib piece. This is probably due to increase in local Nusselt
number around staggered rib piece on the downstream of the gap
caused by increased flow velocity released through gap toward
staggered rib piece due to increased Reynolds number. For the same
reason, the duct roughened with broken arc shaped ribs combined
with staggered rib yield higher friction factor as compared to duct
roughened with broken arc ribs without staggered rib piece
(Fig. 5(b)).
It can also be observed from Fig. 5 that Nusselt number and
friction factor varies with variation in relative staggered rib size. To
show clearly the effect of relative staggered rib size on Nusselt
 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162 155

180
Roughness parameters
p/e = 10, w'/w =0.65, α = 30°, g/e =1.0, p'/p = 0.4, e/Dh = 0.043
160

140

120 Re = 2000

Nusselt number
Re = 4000
100
Re = 6000
80
Re = 8000
60 Re = 10000

40 Re = 12000
Re = 14000
20
Re = 16000
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Rela ve staggered rib size

(a)

0.035
Roughness parameters
p/e = 10, w'/w =0.65, α = 30°, g/e =1.0, p'/p = 0.4, e/Dh = 0.043
0.030

0.025
Fric on factor

0.020

0.015
Re = 2000 Re = 4000 Re = 6000 Re = 8000
Re = 10000 Re = 12000 Re = 14000 Re = 16000
0.010
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Rela ve staggered rib size

(b)
Fig. 8. Nusselt number and friction factor as a function of relative staggered rib size for different Reynolds number.

number and friction factor, the results presented in Fig. 5 are
redrawn in Fig. 8 for Reynolds number ranging from 2000 to
16,000. From Fig. 8, it can be viewed that Nusselt number as well as
friction factor increases as relative staggered rib size increases from
1 to 4 and then both decreases for 4 to 6 increase in relative stag-
gered rib size. It is due to the fact that as the relative staggered rib
size (r/g) is increased beyond 1 the region affected by two vortices
moving along the staggered rib broadens along span-wise direction
which leads to rise in turbulence near the staggered rib region
(Fig. 9) and hence increase the heat transfer. At the same time,
increase in the staggered rib size causes decrease in heat transfer as
increase in the staggered rib size starts interfering with the reat-
tachment of main flow downstream of the main arc ribs (Fig. 9).
This interference is caused by the portion of the staggered rib which
is extending beyond the rib-gap and this interference goes on
increasing with increase in relative staggered rib size (r/g). In the
range of relative staggered rib size from 1 to 4, it is anticipated that
increase in heat transfer due to turbulence caused by broadening of
156 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162
Fig. 9. Top view showing flow phenomenon for different relative staggered rib size.
region affected by vortices dominates over the decrease in the heat
transfer caused by interference in the reattachment of main flow
downstream of the arc ribs resulting in increase in Nusselt number
which attains maximum value corresponding to staggered rib size
(r/g) value of 4. In an investigation on broken V-rib combined with
staggered rib piece, Patil et al. (2013) reported similar increase in
Nusselt number and friction factor with increase in relative stag-
gered rib size for investigated range of 1e2.5.
However with increase in relative staggered rib size (r/g)
beyond 4, decrease in the heat transfer caused by interference in
the reattachment of main flow downstream of the arc ribs domi-
nates over the increase in heat transfer due broadening of region
affected by vortices. Thus, the Nusselt number decreased as relative
staggered rib size is increased from 4 to 6.
In order to compare the enhancement of Nusselt number and
friction factor of roughened duct over smooth duct, the values of
the Nusselt number ratio (Nu/Nus) and friction factor ratio (f/fs) for
relative staggered rib size values ranging 1e6 are presented in
Fig. 10(a) and (b) respectively. For the range of relative staggered rib
size and Reynolds number investigated, the Nusselt number ratio
and friction factor ratio lie between 1.83e3.06 and 1.80e2.50,
respectively. It can be observed from Fig. 10 that the maximum
value of Nusselt number ratio comes at relative staggered rib size of
4 at which the maximum value of friction factor ratio occurred. It is
because of the well established fact that use of roughness in rect-
angular ducts results in enhancement in heat transfer as turbulence
in the laminar sublayer region increases resulting in increase in
friction factor. Therefore, the enhancement in heat transfer is ob-
tained at the cost of increase in friction factor which adversely af-
fects the overall advantage gained by using artificial roughness in
the rectangular ducts. Hence in order to determine the optimum
relative staggered rib size that will result in maximum increase in
heat transfer with least possible friction power penalty, it is
necessary to evaluate thermohydraulic performance which takes
into consideration not only enhancement in heat transfer but also
increase in friction factor.
5.1. Thermo-hydraulic performance
Webb and Eckert (1972) proposed a thermo-hydraulic perfor-
mance parameter (h), which evaluates the enhancement in heat
transfer of a roughened duct compare to that of smooth duct for
equal pumping power requirement and is given as:
Nu=Nus
h¼
ðf =fs Þ1=3
A value of this parameter higher than unity ensures the benefit
of using an enhancement device and can be used to determine
optimum relative staggered rib size among investigated range of
relative staggered rib size considered in present study. In addition,
this parameter can be used to compare the performance of present
study over other studies having similar rib roughness arrangement.
The values of thermo-hydraulic performance parameter for
roughness geometries investigated in this work are shown in Fig. 11
for different Reynolds number. It is found that the value of thermo-
hydraulic performance parameter is greater than one for all relative
staggered rib sizes. This clearly indicates that the performance of
broken arc rib combined with staggered rib roughened duct is su-
perior to the smooth duct. It is seen that the value of parameter is
generally higher for broken arc rib with staggered rib piece as
compared to that for a broken arc rib without staggered rib piece
under similar conditions. The value of this parameter is seen to
increase with increase in relative staggered rib size up to 4 and then
decreases with further increase in the relative staggered rib size at
all values of the Reynolds number. This indicates that it is beneficial
to use broken arc rib combined with staggered rib piece with
relative staggered rib size of 4 as compared to other values of
relative staggered rib sizes. It was also observed that the values of
this performance parameter increases with the increase in Rey-
nolds number upto 12000 and then decreases. The highest value of
thermo-hydraulic performance parameter for relative staggered rib
size value of 4 at Reynolds number of 12,000 is found to be 2.27.
As mentioned earlier that the thermo-hydraulic performance
parameter helps to find out the best roughness arrangement among
rib roughness geometries, therefore the thermo-hydraulic perfor-
mance parameter of the present study is compared to that of pre-
vious studies having similar roughness arrangements [22e26] as
shown in Fig. 12. As the factors causing increase in performance are
different for different roughness geometries which make compar-
ison difficult in nature therefore only those geometries namely,
broken V-rib combined with staggered rib, V- down discrete rib
and staggered discrete V- down rib, are compared which have
similarity in channel geometry and rib configuration. The thermo-
hydraulic performance parameter of these roughness geometries
has been evaluated with the help of correlations reported for
respective geometry by taking the optimum values of roughness
parameters as given in Table 3. It can clearly be observed from
Fig. 12 that the thermo-hydraulic performance of broken arc rib
combined with staggered rib piece outperforms all other geome-
tries having staggered rib piece. It is because the increase in friction
factor ratio for broken arc rib combined with staggered rib piece is
less as compared to that of other geometries having staggered rib
piece reported in literature [13]. Therefore, it is advantageous to use
broken arc rib combined with staggered rib piece over previous
investigated roughness geometries having staggered rib piece.
6. Conclusions
On the basis of experimental investigation on heat transfer and
friction in flow of solar air heater duct roughened with broken arc
rib combined with staggered rib piece, the following conclusions
are drawn as under:
1. The staggered rib piece placed between two consecutive gaps of
broken arc rib of roughened duct has strong influence on the
friction factor and Nusselt number. Compared to smooth duct,
the presence of staggered rib piece in broken arc rib enhanced
(8) the Nusselt number and friction factor by a factor upto 3.06 and
2.50 respectively, whereas in comparison to broken arc rib
without staggered piece this enhancement was 2.60 and 2.27
respectively.
 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162 157

3.5
Roughness parameters
p/e = 10, w'/w =0.65, α = 30°, g/e= 1.0, p'/p = 0.4, e/Dh = 0.043

3.0

Nusselt number ra o
2.5

2.0 r/g = 1.0

r/g = 2.0
r/g = 3.0
r/g = 4.0
1.5
r/g = 5.0
r/g = 6.0
Broken arc without staggered rib piece
1.0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000

Reynolds number

(a)

3.0
Roughness parameters
p/e = 10, w'/w =0.65, α = 30°, g/e= 1.0, p'/p = 0.4, e/Dh = 0.043

2.5
Frici on factor ra o

2.0

r/g = 1.0
r/g = 2.0
r/g = 3.0
1.5
r/g = 4.0
r/g = 5.0
r/g = 6.0
Broken arc without staggered rib piece
1.0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000

Reynolds number
(b)
Fig. 10. Nusselt number ratio and friction factor ratio as a function of Reynolds number for different relative staggered rib size.

2. The Nusselt number and friction factor values are maximum at 3. The thermo-hydraulic performance parameter of broken arc rib
relative staggered rib size of 4 and both decreased on either combined with staggered rib roughened duct is higher than that
sides of this value. of duct having broken arc rib without staggered rib piece for the
range of Reynolds number studied. For broken arc rib combined
158 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162

3.0
Roughness parameters

Thermohydraulic performance parameter

p/e = 10, w'/w =0.65, α = 30°, g/e= 1.0, p'/p = 0.4, e/Dh = 0.043
2.5

2.0

r/g = 1.0
1.5
r/g = 2.0
r/g = 3.0
r/g = 4.0
1.0
r/g = 5.0
r/g = 6.0
Broken arc without staggered rib piece
0.5
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000

Reynolds number
Fig. 11. Thermo-hydraulic performance parameter as a function of Reynolds number.

2.50
Thermohydraulic Performance Parameter

2.30

2.10

1.90

1.70

1.50
Broken arc rib combined with staggered rib [Present]
1.30 Broken V rib combined with staggered rib [26]
V dicrete rib [25]
1.10
Staggered discrete V rib [24]
0.90
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000

Reynolds Number
Fig. 12. Thermo-hydraulic performance parameter comparison with similar roughness geometries.

Table 3
Roughness parameter of roughness geometries considered for comparison.

Investigators Configuration Roughness parameter

Muluwork et al. [24] Staggered discrete V- down rib AR ¼ 12, P/e ¼ 10, e/Dh ¼ 0.05, p0 /p ¼ 0.4, a ¼ 60
B/S ¼ 9, Re ¼ 3032e17652
Karwa et al. [25] V- down discrete rib AR ¼ 7.5, e/Dh ¼ 0.048, P/e ¼ 10, a ¼ 60, B/S ¼ 3.0
Re ¼ 2800e15000
Patil et al. [26] Broken V rib combined with staggered rib piece AR ¼ 12, P/e ¼ 10, r/e ¼ 2.5,
s0 /s ¼ 0.6, p0 /p ¼ 0.4
Re ¼ 3000e17000
Present study Broken arc rib combined with staggered rib piece AR ¼ 12, e/Dh ¼ 0.043, P/e ¼ 10, a ¼ 30, d/w ¼ 0.65, g/e ¼ 1.0,
p0 /p ¼ 0.4, r/g ¼ 4.0,
Re ¼ 2000e16000
 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162 159

with staggered rib duct, the highest thermo-hydraulic perfor- r Staggered rib size (m)
mance parameter achieved was 2.27, as compared to 1.98 for Re Reynolds number
broken arc rib without staggered rib roughened duct. s0 /s relative gap position
4. For the range of Reynolds number investigated, the thermo- tfm mean temperature of air (
C)
hydraulic performance of broken arc rib geometry is better in ti inlet temperature of air (
C)
comparison to roughness geometries reported in literature to average exit temperature of air (
C)
having staggered rib piece due to lesser frictional losses. tpm average temperature of plate (
C)
V velocity of air (m/s)
w0 Gap position from leading edge of arc (m)
Acknowledgement
w Half width of duct (m)
W duct width (m)
The author acknowledges the Punjab Technical University (PTU),
a arc angle/angle of attack (
)
Kaputhala, India for supporting this research work and Punjab
DPo pressure drop across orifice meter (N/m2)
Agricultural University for providing facilities for experimentation.
DPd pressure drop across duct (N/m2)
h thermo hydraulic performance parameter
Nomenclature ra air density at mean temperature (kg/m3)
b orifice throat diameter to pipe diameter ratio
Ao orifice throat area (m2)
Ap absorber plate area (m2)
B/S relative roughness length ratio Appendix A. Uncertainty analysis
Cd discharge coefficient ¼ 0.617 (determined through
calibration) If the parameter is calculated using certain measured quantities
Cp constant pressure specific heat (J/kg-K) as, then uncertainty in measurement of ‘‘R’’ is given follows:
CFD Computational fluid dynamics sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2  2  2
Dh hydraulic diameter (m) ¼ 0.04615 dR vR vR vR
¼ dx1 þ dx2 þ ………: þ d xn
e/Dh relative roughness height R vx1 vx2 vxn
e rib height (m)
f roughened duct friction factor Where dx1 , dx2 dx3 ……dxn are possible errors in measurements of
fs smooth duct friction factor x1, x2, x3, …, xn. dR is known as absolute uncertainty and dR=R is
g Gap width (m) known as relative uncertainty. The relevant data considered for a
H duct depth (m) sample uncertainty calculation is given in Table A1. The uncertainty
h convective heat transfer coefficient (W/m2-K) in instruments is taken equal to the least count of the instruments
Ka thermal conductivity (W/m-K) to ensure the mean of the repeated instruments to lie within the
L duct length for pressure drop (m) uncertainty envelope [32] and is listed in Table A2. In the present
m_ mass flow rate (kg/s) investigation, the important parameters are considered for uncer-
Nu roughened duct Nusselt number tainty analysis:
Nus smooth duct Nusselt number
P rib pitch (m) (i) Reynolds number (Re), Re ¼ rairmVDh
mC DΤ
p0 Staggered rib piece position from arc rib having gap (m) (ii) Heat transfer coefficient (h), h ¼ Ap ðTpmpTfm Þ
P/e relative roughness pitch (iii) Nusselt number (Nu), Nu ¼ hD k
h

2ðDРÞd Dh
p0 /p relative staggered rib position (iv) Friction factor (f), f ¼ 4r LV 2
air
Pr Prandtl number
Q heat transfer rate to air (W)

Table A1
Values of measured parameters

Sr. No. Measured parameters Symbol Value

1 Test section length L 1000 mm

2 Width of duct W 300 mm
3 Height of the duct H 25 mm
4 Diameter of pipe containing orifice d1 81 mm
5 Diameter of orifice d2 39 mm
6 Head drop across orifice (Dh)o 310 mm of kerosene column
(DP)o 1732.17 N/m2 (Pa)
7 Pressure drop across test section (DP)d 29.3 Pa
8 Atmospheric Pressure Patm 98,700 Pa or 740.31 mm Hg
9 Outlet temperature of air To 301.9 K
10 Inlet temperature of air Ti 293.2 K
11 Rise in temperature of air DT 8.7
C
12 Mean bulk air temperature Tfm 297.6 K
13 Mean plate temperature Tpm 314.4 K
14 Mass flow rate of air m 0.048 kg/s
15 Heat transfer to air Qu 417.5 W
16 Heat transfer coefficient h 82.78 W/m2 K
17 Nusselt Number Nu 146.7
18 Friction factor f 0.0194
160 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162

Table A2
Uncertainty interval of various measurements [32].

Sr. No. Measurement Symbol Instrument Least count of instruments Uncertainty

1 Dimension of duct:
Width W Vernier Caliper 0.01 mm ±0.01 mm
Depth H Vernier Caliper 0.01 mm ±0.01 mm
Length L Linear scale 1 mm ±1 mm/1 m
2 Pressure drop in the duct. (DP)d Micro-manometer 0.001 Pa ±0.001 Pa
3 Pressure drop across the orifice plate (DP)o Inclined U-tube Manometer 1 mm ±1 mm
4 Temperature measurement T Copper-constantan thermocouples ±0.25
C
5 Rib dimensions:
Rib height e Vernier Caliper 0.01 mm ±0.01 mm
Half duct width w Vernier Caliper 0.01 mm ±0.01 mm
Gap position d Vernier Caliper 0.01 mm ±0.01 mm
Gap width g Vernier Caliper 0.01 mm ±0.01 mm
Rib pitch P Vernier Caliper 0.01 mm ±0.01 mm
6 Atmospheric pressure Patm Digital barometer 1 mm ±1 mm of Hg
7 Diameter of pipe containing orifice d1 Vernier Caliper 0.01 mm ±0.01 mm
Diameter of orifice d2

" 2 #0:5
The thermo-physical properties of air were determined using
p  d2
standard correlations as given below. ∴ dA2 ¼  dd2
2
Kinematics viscosity; m ¼ 1:81  105  ðTfm =293Þ0:735
Specific heat at constant pressure; Cp ¼ 1006  ðTfm =293Þ0:0155 p  d2  dd2
Thermal conductivity of air; K ¼ 0:0257  ðTfm =293Þ0:86 or dA2 ¼
2
Density of air at To ; rair;o ¼ RPatm
To ; Density of air at Tfm ;
rair ¼ RPatm
Tfm p 
dA2 2 d2 
dd2 2  dd2 2  0:1
¼ p d2 ¼ ¼
A2 2 2
d2 39

1. Area of the absorber plate (Ap) ¼ 5:13  103 or 0:513%

"    #0:5
dAp dL 2 dW 2
¼ þ
Ap L W 4. Density of air

" 2   #0:5 Density of air at To, rair;o ¼ RPatm

dAp 1 0:1 2 To
¼ þ ¼ 0:001054 or 0:1054%
Ap 1000 300 " 2  2 #0:5
drair;o dPatm dTo
¼ þ 
rair;o Patm To

2. Area of flow (Ac) " 2   #0:5

drair;o 1 0:25 2
¼ þ ¼ 0:00158 or 0:158%
rair;o 736:56 308:7
" 2  2 #0:5 Density of air at Tfm, rair ¼ RPatm
dAc dW dH Tfm
¼ þ
Ac W H 2 !2 30:5
 2
drair 4 dPatm dTfm 5
" ¼ þ 
2  2 #0:5 rair Patm Tfm
dAc 0:1 0:1
¼ þ ¼ 0:00401 or 0:4%
Ac 300 25
" 2   #0:5
drair 1 0:25 2
¼ þ ¼ 0:00159 or 0:159%
rair 736:56 304:2
3. Area of throat of orifice meter (A2)

vA2 2  p  d2
¼ 5. Mass flow rate, m
vd2 4
 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162 161

" 2  2 #0:5 "   2 #0:5 2 0
12 30:5

db dd1 dd2 0:1 2 0:1  2  
¼ þ ¼ þ dh 6 dQ dAp 2 @d Tpm  Tfm A 7
b d1 d2 81 39 ¼4 þ þ
 5
h Q Ap Tpm  T fm
¼ 0:00285

2 !2 "   #0:5
      dh 0:25 2
dm_ dCd 2 dA2 2 1 drair;o 1 dðDPÞo 2 ¼ ð0:0333Þ2 þ ð0:001055Þ2 þ
¼4 þ þ þ h 16:8
m_ Cd A2 4 rair;o 4 ðDPÞo
3 ¼ 0:0365 or 3:65%
 2 0:5
1 4  db 5
þ
4 b

From calibration chart of orifice meter, the value of dCd/

9. Nusselt number (Nu)
Cd ¼ 1.50%, The uncertainty (DP)o, for U-tube manometer ¼ 0.2 mm
having manometer inclination of 45
.
"   
dm_ 1:50 2 1 1 0:2 2 " 2  2  2 #0:5
¼ þ ð0:000513Þ2 þ ð0:00158Þ2 þ dNu dh dDh dk
m_ 100 4 4 310 ¼ þ þ
Nu h Dh k
#0:5
1
þ ð4  0:000285Þ2 "
4   #0:5
dNu 0:00001 2
2 2
¼ ð0:0365Þ þ ð0:0037Þ þ
¼ 0:01687 or 1:687% Nu 0:02604
¼ 0:0367 or 3:67%

6. Velocity of air in test section (V)

10. Reynolds Number (Re)

" 2  2  2  2 #0:5
dV dm_ drair dW dH
¼ þ þ þ "
V m_ rair W H 2  2  2  2 #0:5
dRe dV drair dDh dm
¼ þ þ þ
" Re V rair Dh m
 2   #0:5
dV 0:1
2 2 0:1 2
¼ ð0:01687Þ þ ð0:00159Þ þ þ 2
V 300 25
dRe
¼ 0:01741 or 1:74% ¼ 4ð0:01741Þ2 þ ð0:00159Þ2 þ ð0:0037Þ2
Re
!2 30:5
0:001  105 5
þ
1:83  105
7. Useful heat gain (Qu)
¼ 0:0179 or 1:79%

" 2  2  2 #0:5
dQu dm_ dCp dðDTÞ
¼ þ þ
Qu m_ Cp DT 11. Friction factor (f)

The uncertainties in air properties (Cp, m, k and Pr) are:

dCp ¼ 0:1; dm ¼ 0:001  105 ; dk ¼ 0:00001 and dPr ¼ 0:001 " 2  2  2  2   #0:5
df dV drair dDh dL dðDPÞd 2
¼ þ þ þ þ
"
f V rair Dh L ðDPÞd
 2  2 #0:5
dQu 0:1 0:25
¼ ð0:01687Þ2 þ þ
Qu 1006:24 8:7 "  2
df 1
¼ 0:0333 or 3:33% ¼ ð2  0:01741Þ2 þ ð0:00159Þ2 þ ð0:0037Þ2 þ
f 1000
 2 #0:5
0:001
þ
29:3
8. Heat transfer Coefficient (h) ¼ 0:0351 or 3:51%
162 R.S. Gill et al. / Renewable Energy 104 (2017) 148e162
Appendix B. 3D periodic geometry of roughened duct for CFD
investigation
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