VISVESVERAYA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLGY, NAGPUR

SOLAR AIR HEATER

Submitted by: Vinod Rane 12MT07HPE016 Praful Ingle 12MT07HPE009

Submitted to: Dr, A. K. Singh

SOLAR AIR HEATER

Introduction:
The principal applications in which solar air heaters are used are drying for agricultural and industrial purposes, and space heating. Indeed, they are the logical choice for these applications, compared to liquid flat-plate collectors, because they eliminate the need to transfer heat from one fluid to another. The additional continuous longitudinal fins to the bottom side of the absorber plate improves the heat transfer. This is desirable because it increases the efficiency.

Performance Analysis:
Analyse the air heater with fins on bottom side of absorber plate in which fins of height Lf and thickness f are spaced at a distance W centre-to-centre apart. The distance between the absorber plate and the bottom plate is (L-Lf).

Considering slice of width w and thickness dx at a distance x from the inlet, we again write down energy balance to absorber plate, bottom plate, cover and air stream.

For Absorber plate: SWdx = hfp(Tpm Tf)Wdx + hrWdx(Tpm Tbm) + hrWdx(Tpm Tbm) + hrWdx(Tpm Tc) + 2hfffLf(Tpm Tf)dx

S = hfp(Tpm Tf) + hrWdx(Tpm Tbm) + hr(Tpm Tbm) + hr(Tpm Tc) + 2hfffLf(Tpm Tf)/W ----(1)

For Bottom plate: hr(Tpm Tpm)Wdx = ffb(Tbm Tf)Wdx + UbWdx(Tbm To) Neglect loss to bottom compare it with top loss hr(Tpm Tpm)Wdx = ffb(Tbm Tf)Wdx For Top Cover: hr(Tpm - Tc) = Ut (Tc Ta) For Air Stream WmCpdTf/L2 = hfgWdx (Tpm Tf) + 2Lffhffdx(Tpm Tf) + hfb(Tbm Tf) mCpdTf/L2dx = hfp(Tpm Tf) + 2Lffhff(Tpm T f)/W + hfb(Tbm Tf) From equation 2 and 3, equation 1 can be reduced to, S = hfp(Tpm Tf) + hfb(Tbm Tf) + Ut (Tc Ta) + 2hfffLf(Tpm Tf)/W From 4, we get, mCpdTf/L2dx = (hfp - 2Lffhff(Tpm T f)/W hfb).Tf + (hfp - 2Lffhff(Tpm T f)/W)Tpm + hfbTbm ---(4) ---(3) ---(2)

(h 2 2 ) + (h + ) +

[ln ((h

2 2 ) + (h + ) + )] 2 (h )

2 0 1

hfp = hff = hfb = 23.02 W/m2K Lf = 1.3 cm f = 0.983 Tpm = 70oC W = 2.5 cm Tbm = 55oC ln(-23.53Tf + 4524.87)/(-23.53) = 0.01791x Tf = 30 0.0425 e-0.4214x

MATLAB code:
>syms X; >>Tf=30-0.0425*exp(-0.04214*X) Tf =30 - 17/(400*exp((2107*X)/50000)) >> X=0:0.25:1 X=0 0.2500 0.5000 0.7500 1.0000

>>Tf=eval(Tf) Tf = 29.9575 29.9579 29.9584 29.9588 29.9593 >> plot(X,Tf) >>xlabel('Length(X)'); >>ylabel('Fluid Temperature');
29.9594 29.9592 29.959 29.9588

Fluid Temperature

29.9586 29.9584 29.9582 29.958 29.9578 29.9576 29.9574

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5 0.6 Length(X)

0.7

0.8

0.9