Performance Evaluation of Solar Collector Having Broken Arc Ribs Of Symmetrical Gap with Staggered Elements

Abstract

To experimentally investigate the thermal behaviour of solar collector with broken arc artificial roughness of symmetrical gap and staggered element, a study is conducted with four number of absorber surface of hot rolled steel plate of dimensions 1500 mm x210 mm x1.2 mm (length x width x thickness). The test dimension of plate was 1500 mm x 200 mm (LxW). The test parameters were relative roughness pitch P/e as 8-14, relative roughness height e/Dh as 0.04545, number of gaps Ng as 2, relative gap width g/e as 1, relative staggered length r/e as 4.5, relative staggered pitch p’/p as 0.4 and Reynolds number 3000-15000. The highest Nusselt number recorded at staggered length 3.5 was 5 times smooth plate. The highest thermohydraulic performance was recorded 1.85 for the same value of relative staggered length.