CFD Analysis of Airflow Through Prism Obstacles Inside Solar Air Heater Channel

Abstract

This study presents an analysis of airflow through prism obstacles inside a trapezoidal solar air heater channel using a computational fluid dynamics method. The purpose is to now the best configuration of gap ratio (S/H) 0.7, 1, 1.3 for 30° obstacle folded angle. The air is 2.62 m/s and the air temperature is 299 K. The channel wall boundary condition is heat flux with a constant value of 620 W/m2 is attached alongside the wall of the channel. The equation is Pressure-velocity coupling performed with SIMPLE. Renormalization-group (RNG) k-ϵ is chosen as a turbulent model. The simulation result presents temperature distribution, airflow vector in the middle plane of a channel. The obstacle can create backflow. It can increase the air temperature in a channel.