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Thermal performance enhancement of solar air collector using a novel V-groove absorber plate with pin-fins for drying agricultural products: an experimental study

  • P. Sudhakar
  • M. CheralathanEmail author
Article
First Online:
  • 15 Downloads

Abstract

An experimental investigation of a novel V-groove absorber plate with pin-fins on double-pass solar air collector was made to study the enhancement of thermal performance. The objective of this work is to develop a solar air collector for drying agricultural products with enhanced heat transfer rate by employing pin-fins on V-groove absorber plate under varied configurations. The parameters that influence the instantaneous thermal efficiency of the collector are discussed, and obtained results are compared with a conventional V-groove absorber plate for same mass flow rate values. Energy and exergy analyses were also carried out. The results show that the efficiency of the collector depends strongly on the flow rate. Also, it is noted that for a flow rate of 0.035 kg s−1, the novel V-groove absorber plate with pin-fins installed on both sides exhibits extended heat transfer area, thereby a rise in average thermal efficiency by 17.4%.

Keywords

Solar air collector V-groove absorber plate Pin-fins Efficiency Heat transfer coefficient Solar drying 

List of symbols

Ac

Collector surface area (m2)

Cp

Specific heat of air (kJ kg−1 K−1)

E

Energy (kW)

Ex

Exergy (kW)

Ic

Solar radiation (W m−2)

Ir

Irreversibility (kW)

m

Mass flow rate (kg s−1)

Nu

Nusselt number

Pr

Prandtl number

Qu

Useful heat gain (kW)

Re

Reynolds number

S

Entropy (kJ kg−1 K−1)

T

Temperature (°C)

∆T

Temperature difference (°C)

W

Work (kW)

k

Thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

Greek letters

(τα)

Product of solar transmittance and absorption ratio

η

Collector efficiency

ηII

Second law efficiency

Subscripts

a

Ambient

c

Collector

i

Inlet

o

Outlet

d

Destruction

gen

Generation

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Notes

References

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Copyright information

© Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Mechanical EngineeringSRM Institute of Science and TechnologyKattankulathurIndia

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