Development of Solar Air Collector with Crimped Baffles for Drying Applications

Abstract

In the present work, a solar air collector with crimped baffles has been developed towards obtaining a required outlet temperature of solar air collector suitable for an agricultural dryer. The solar air collector was designed and constructed and installed in the campus of Department of Thermal Engineering, Hoa Binh Xuan Loc Vocational College, Bienhoa city, Vietnam. It consists of solar air collector with internal crimped baffles and has the total collection surface area of 2 m 2 , absorber plate, glass cover, fans and collector box. The experimental results show that outlet temperature of solar air collectỏ ranges from 40 o C to 80 o C. The difference value of outlet temperature between the simulation and experiment is 1.5%. Besides, the effects of the number crimped baffles, ambient temperature and solar radiation on the efficient of solar air collector were also evaluated.