EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE THERMO-HYDRAULIC PERFORMANCE OF A SINGLE-PASS SOLAR AIR HEATER WITH POROUS MEDIUM

Abstract

Enhancing the thermo-hydraulic performance of solar air collectors (SACs) can be achieved by various ways, some of which are; fins, ribs, baffles, porous medium and groves. So far, diverse attempts have been established to enquire the effects of these ways on the heater performance. Consequently the performance of a single pass SAC (SPSAH) employing Porous Medium (PM) with various density and porosity has been experimentally investigated. Several porous packings made of compressed aluminum scraps with different packing density and filament size were utilized. A SAC fitted with a solar simulator was designed to apply a uniform heat flux (q”) of about 700 W/m2, where the solar simulator generates irradiance similar to that coming from the sun. It is utilized to run experiments under constant heat flux conditions without the demand for natural solar radiation. Noting that solar simulator utilized in this study is designed and constructed of scrape which is mentioned in details. The distribution of the flux generated from the constructed solar simulator was measured and reported in the results.