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Experimental analysis and exergetic assessment of the solar air collector with delta winglet vortex generators and baffles

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Abstract

To increase the efficiency of solar air collectors (SACs), the combined effects of baffles and delta winglet vortex generator (DWLVG) on the performance of SAC have been investigated. An experimental setup has been made, and numerical simulation is carried out in Ansys Fluent. The numerical investigation is validated by the experimental study and focused on the number of baffles as well as the number and the height of DWLVG. The results show that the SAC with no baffles and DWLVG has the lowest efficiency with the maximum value of 13%, while for SAC with six baffles and three pairs of DWLVG, the efficiency reaches up to 20%. The exergy analysis of three cases, SAC without baffles and DWLVG, SAC with six baffles without DWLVG, and SAC with six baffles and three pairs of DWLVG, shows that the maximum exergy efficiency of the SAC is 30.44% and occurs when the height ratio and the number of DWLVG pairs are 0.5 and 3. The results show that for SAC with six baffles and three pairs of DWLVG, the energy and exergy efficiency improve 7.4% and 12% on an average basis compared to the typical flat plate SAC, respectively. This improvement in thermal and exergy efficiency is due to the implementation of DWLVG which produces more turbulence and eliminates the vortices generated at the corners of SAC.

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Abbreviations

\(A_{\text{c}}\) :

Aperture area of the collector (m2)

\(C_{1}\) :

Constant function

\(C_{2}\) :

Constant

\(C_{1\epsilon }\) :

Constant

\(C_{3\epsilon }\) :

Degree to which \(\epsilon\) is affected by the buoyancy

\(C_{\mu }\) :

Constant

\(C_{\text{p}}\) :

Specific heat capacity of top glass cover (J kg−1 K−1)

\(C_{{{\text{p}}_{\text{air}} }}\) :

Specific heat capacity of air (J kg−1 K−1)

\(\dot{E}\) :

Energy rate (W)

\({\dot{\rm{E}}}{\rm{x}}\) :

Exergy rate (W)

\({\dot{\rm{E}}}{\rm{x}}_{\text{dest}}\) :

Rate of irreversibility or exergy destruction (W)

\(G_{\text{k}}\) :

Generation of turbulence kinetic energy

\(G_{\text{b}}\) :

Generation of turbulence kinetic energy due to buoyancy

\(g_{\text{i}}\) :

Component of the gravitational vector

\(I\) :

Effective solar irradiation over the surface of the collector (W m−2)

\(k\) :

Turbulent kinetic energy

\(\dot{m}_{\text{air}}\) :

Mass flow rate of air

\(M\) :

Mass (kg)

\(P\) :

Fluid pressure (N m−2)

\({ \Pr }_{\text{t}}\) :

Turbulent Prandtl number for energy

\(q_{\text{out,k}}\) :

Energy flux leaving the surface

\(q_{\text{in,k}}\) :

Energy flux incident on the surface from the surroundings

\(\dot{Q}_{\text{s}}\) :

Useful heat rate (W)

\(R\) :

Universal gas constant (J kg−1 K−1)

\({\text{Re}}\) :

Reynolds number

\(s\) :

Entropy (J kg−1 K−1)

\(S\) :

Modulus of the mean rate-of-strain tensor

\(S_{\text{k}}\) :

User-defined source terms

\(S_{\epsilon}\) :

User-defined source terms

T :

Periphery temperature

\(u\) :

Velocity component in corresponding direction (m s−1)

\(x\) :

Characteristic of length (m)

\(Y_{\text{M}}\) :

Contribution of the fluctuating dilatation

\(\alpha\) :

Transparent cover transmittance

\(\beta\) :

Coefficient of thermal expansion

\(\gamma\) :

Absorb plate absorption rate

\(\epsilon\) :

Rate of dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy

\(\epsilon_{\text{c}}\) :

Emissivity of heat absorber plate

\(\epsilon_{\text{g}}\) :

Emissivity of top glass cover

\(\zeta\) :

Strain tensor

\(\eta_{\text{e}}\) :

Thermal efficiency

\(\eta_{\text{ex}}\) :

Exergy efficiency

\(\lambda\) :

Thermal conductivity coefficient of glass cover (W m−1 K−1)

\(\mu\) :

Viscosity (kg m−1 s−1)

\(\mu_{\text{t}}\) :

Turbulent (or eddy) viscosity

\(\rho\) :

Density of top glass cover

\(\sigma\) :

Boltzmann’s constant

\(\sigma_{\text{k}}\) :

Prandtl numbers for \(k\)

\(\sigma_{\epsilon }\) :

Prandtl numbers for \(\epsilon\)

\(\psi\) :

Specific exergy (J kg−1)

DWLVG:

Delta winglet vortex generator

e:

Environment

FVM:

Finite volume method

f:

Fluid

in:

Inlet

out:

Outlet

s:

Sun

sol:

solar

SAC:

Solar air collector

VG:

Vortex generator

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Islamic Azad University-Shahrood Branch, Shahrood, Iran

    Ali Sari, Meisam Sadi, Ghobad Shafiei Sabet, Mohammad Mohammadiun & Hamid Mohammadiun

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  1. Ali Sari
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Sari, A., Sadi, M., Shafiei Sabet, G. et al. Experimental analysis and exergetic assessment of the solar air collector with delta winglet vortex generators and baffles. J Therm Anal Calorim 145, 867–885 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-10298-6

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