Thermo-hydraulic performance analysis of jet plate solar air heater under cross flow condition

Abstract

In order to transfer higher heat from absorber plate to flowing air stream to increase the amount of collected energy and thus, to improve efficiency of solar air heater, a jet impingement concept has been studied. To investigate the effect of geometrical parameters like hole configuration on the jet plate i.e., inline and staggered holes, and operational parameter like velocity of air impinging out of the holes on to surface of the absorber plate on the performance of jet plate solar air heater, a detailed analysis has been performed on the design for different air mass flow rates. Experiments are performed with air mass flow rates, ?1= 0.05-0.105 kg/sec, ?2 = 0.033-0.07 kg/sec, Re = 0.59×104-1.15×104, jet hole diameter, D = 0.006 m. Also, a parallel study has been made on a conventional parallel plate solar air heater to have comparison of air temperature increment and collector efficiency with those of the jet plate solar heater. The results obtained from the present study show that the mass flow rate of air influences heat transfer in the jet plate solar air heater. The performance of cross flow solar air heater with inline hole jet plate is superior over that with staggered hole jet plate.