Heat Transfer Analysis of Advanced Solar Collector

Abstract

A 2-dimensional CFD analysis has been carried out to study heat transfer and fluid flow behavior in a rectangular duct of a solar air heater with one roughened wall having circular and square rib roughness. The effect of Reynolds number and relative roughness pitch on the heat transfer coefficient and friction factor have been studied. In order to validate the present numerical model, results have been compared with available experimental results under similar flow conditions. CFD Investigation has been carried out in medium Reynolds number flow (Re = 3800–18,000). It is found that the thermal enhancement factor values vary between 1.4 and 1.7 for circular rib and between 1.5 and 1.7 for square rib.