Performance investigation of a solar thermal collector provided with air jets impingement on multi V-shaped protrusion ribs absorber plate

Abstract

In the present work, the heat transfer through a solar thermal collector (STC) provided with jet air impingement on the absorbent plate fitted with multi V-shaped protrusion ribs is investigated experimentally. The investigation is carried out for geometric parameters such as Relative width ratio (WPR/WAPR), Relative protrusion rib height (hPR/dPR), Relative pitch ratio (PPR/hPR), Angle of attack (αPR) respectively. The values of the streamwise pitch ratio (XSW/dh) = 0.40, spanwise pitch ratio (YSW/dh) = 0.85 and jet diameter ratio (dj/dh) = 0.064 are kept constant. The overall performance of STC is effectively evaluated by varying Reynolds number (Re) in the range 2500–35,000. The results obtained from the experiments shows that the impingement jets flow on multi V-shaped protrusion ribs absorber plate accelerated the heat transfer through the solar collector channel. The optimal augmentation is obtained at WPR/WAPR= 5, hPR/dPR= 0.9, PPR/hPR = 8 and αPR = 65° respectively. Thermal-hydraulic performance parameter ( ηPR) has also been investigated and the maximum value of 3.44 is obtained for the range of parameters studied.