Thermo-hydraulic analysis of a solar cogeneration air-heater

Abstract

The requirement of energy becomes utmost essential for sustainability of modern societies and for future growth of economy and industries. The ever-increased demand of energy has put tremendous pressure on conventional energy resources which are already been stretched to its limit. The renewable energy resources especially solar energy being a viable and sustainable source of energy has acclaimed a wide attention as prominent substitute to conventional energy sources. Among these, the utility of solar air heater is yet to be explored fully. SAH has a number of applications namely drying of aquatic products, drying of crops, room heating and other industrial applications. However, the drawbacks of SAH are weather and time dependency, need of large heat transfer area and a large volume flow of air due to depressing heat transfer coefficient of air. To mitigate the aforementioned problems, a double-glazed double-pass SAH system is proposed and tested theoretically. The focus of the recommended system is to minimize the factors which reduce the performance of the conventional SAH. A comparative study is done between the double-glazed DPSAH system with and without roughness.