Improving Thermal Efficiency of Solar Air Collector by Creating Turbulent Flow Using New Baffles Combinations

Abstract

The study shows an experimental investigation for a solar air collector with a single pass by adding rectangular baffles for different positions inside the channel. The aim of this study is to improve the thermal efficiency for this collector, and that through testing four cases of baffles positions (mode 1, 2, 3, 4). The study was done under different operating conditions by changing the mass flow rates and positions of baffles. The results show the effectiveness of the baffles in improving the efficiency of the collector, The study also proved that the baffles positions affect thermal efficiency, where the greatest efficiency was recorded in the fourth mode and then in the positioning of obstacles at the middle of the channel for the mode 2 and the mode 4 with a percentage of 76.61 and 90.9, at mass flow rate m=0.0522 kg/s, while the pressure drop was very high in the mode 4, and after that the mode 2. Through the conditions of the study and taking into account all the results; we can say that the best case was mode 2.

Keywords

• mass flow rate
• position of baffles
• solar air collector
• thermal efficiency
• turbulent flow