Examine the effect of various shape of absorber plate of solar air heater integrated with vortex generator

Kundan Kumar; Shivendra Singh; B. Suresh

doi:10.69968/ijisem.2025v4i1118-129

Authors

Kundan Kumar Research Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Corporate Institute of Science & Technology, Bhopal
Shivendra Singh Asst. Prof., Department of Mechanical Engineering, Corporate Institute of Science & Technology, Bhopal
B. Suresh Prof. & HOD, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Corporate Institute of Science & Technology, Bhopal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.69968/ijisem.2025v4i1118-129

Keywords:

Heat Flux, Triangular Ribs, Trapezoidal Ribs, Corrugated Absorber, Heat Transfer

Abstract

Solar energy is a noteworthy renewable energy source that may be used as a sustainable substitute for fossil fuels in many applications, including evacuated tube solar collectors, solar water heaters, and solar air heaters (SAHs). Among these, SAHs are widely utilized due to their simplicity and efficiency. In a solar air heater duct with rectangular vortex generators, this research examines the effects of various absorber plate configurations employing "computational fluid dynamics (CFD)". Heat transmission between the air and the absorber plate was examined using three different absorber plate geometries: corrugated, triangular, and trapezoidal. Additionally, variations in the geometric configurations of the triangular and trapezoidal ribbed absorber plates were considered. The air velocity was constant at 1.31 m/s in each instance, while "the absorber plate" was continually exposed to a heat flux of 815 W/m². The rate of heat transfer, outlet air temperature, temperature contours, pressure contours, velocity contours, and other critical performance metrics were investigated. The results indicate that heat transfer is significantly higher in SAH ducts with triangular and trapezoidal ribbed absorber plates compared to the corrugated plate. The maximum outlet air temperature of 325.83 K and a heat transfer rate of 595.44 W were observed in case 6, representing the highest values among all configurations studied. These results demonstrate how optimized ribbed designs may improve solar air heaters' thermal performance.

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