Thermo-hydraulic performance of solar air heaters having integral chamfered rib roughness on absorber plates

This paper presents results of an experimental investigation of the performance of solar air heaters with chamfered repeated rib-roughness on the airflow side of the absorber plates. The roughened elements have a relative roughness pitch of 4.58 and 7.09 while the rib chamfer angle is fixed at 15°. For the airflow duct depths of 21.8, 21.5 and 16 mm, the relative roughness heights for the three roughened plates used are 0.0197, 0.0256 and 0.0441, respectively. The airflow rate per unit area of absorber plate has been varied between 0.024 to 0.102 kgs−1 m−2 (flow Reynolds number ranges from 3750 to 16 350). The study shows substantial enhancement in thermal efficiency (10 to 40%) over solar air heaters with smooth absorber plates due to the enhancement in the Nusselt number (50% to 120%). The thermal efficiency enhancement is also accompanied by a considerable enhancement in the pumping power requirement due to the increase in the friction factor (80% to 290%). At low flow rates, corresponding to applications requiring air at a high temperature, the solar air heater with roughness elements having a high relative roughness height, yields a better performance. However, at high flow rates the increase in the pumping power is greater than the relative gain in the energy collection for a greater relative roughness height and, hence, the net gain is higher for smaller roughness heights. At still higher flow rates, the smooth duct air heater has better effective efficiency. A mathematical model for thermal performance prediction of solar air heaters with absorber plate having integral chamfered rib-roughness has been presented. The experimental and predicted values of thermal efficiency lie within ±7% with a standard deviation of ±5.8%.