Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 10 (2017) 111–120

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Case Studies in Thermal Engineering

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Performance analysis of solar air heater with jet impingement on

T
corrugated absorber plate
⁎
Alsanossi M. Aboghraraa,c, , B.T.H.T. Baharudina, M.A. Alghoulb, Nor Mariah Adama,
A.A. Hairuddina, Husam A. Hasanb
a
Mechanical Department, Faculty of Engineering, (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
b
Solar Energy Research Institute, (UKM), 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
c
Physics Department, Faculty of Science Traghen, University of Sebha, Libya

AR TI CLE I NF O AB S T R A CT

Keywords: This paper deals with the experimental investigation outlet temperature and efficiency, of Solar
Solar air heater Air heater (SAH). The experimental test set up designed and fabricated to study the effect of jet
Jet impingement impingement on the corrugated absorber plate, through circular jets in a duct flow of solar air
Corrugated plat heater, and compared with conventional solar air heater on flat plat absorber. Under effect of
Outlet temperature
mass flow rate (ṁ ) of air and solar radiation on outlet air temperature, and efficiency, are
Efficiency
analyzed. Results show the flow jet impingement on corrugated plat absorber is a strong function
of heat transfer enhancement. The present investigation concludes that the mass flow rate of air
substantially influences the heat transfer on solar air heaters. And the thermal efficiency of
proposed design duct is observed almost 14% more as compare to the smooth duct. At solar
radiation 500–1000 (W/M2), 308 K ambient temperature and 0.01–0.03 (Kg/S) mass flow rate

1. Introduction

Solar air system is a type of system which collects solar energy and transforms it into heat. It has an important place with solar
thermal systems and widely used in many commercial applications such as buildings, agricultural and industrial drying [1]. A lot of
equipment or appliances need to have high heat transfer performance to guarantee their quality and capability [2–3]. So, in any heat
exchanger, a higher overall heat transfer coefficient is desirable. Flat plate solar air heaters are generally used for low and moderate
temperature [4]. However, the solar air heater has low efficiency due to low convective heat transfer coefficient in the smooth
absorber surface [5–7] air limitation to energy extraction [8] and flow rate limitations [9–10]. This makes it necessary to develop
new techniques to enhance the heat and mass transfer.
One of the effective ways to enhance the convective heat-transfer rate in SAH is to extend the heat-transfer surface area by using
roughened surfaces in order to increase the turbulence inside the channel [11,12] and many studies have been carried out on this
aspect. Wenfeng [13] compared the performance of three types of SAHs, two configurations are cross-corrugated and the third one is
flat plate. The obtained thermal performance of these three configurations are (58.9, 60.3) and 48.6% respectively. It is shown that
the both configurations of cross-corrugated are significantly higher than the flat plate collector. This improvement of thermal
performance is due to the enhanced turbulence and heat-transfer rate inside the air flow channel in corrugated plate, which is about
3.25 times of that in flat plate heater.
On the other hand, the jet impingement concept is an effective method of increasing convective heat transfer in a solar air heater.

⁎
Corresponding author at: Mechanical Department, Faculty of Engineering, (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
E-mail address: [email protected] (A.M. Aboghrara).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2017.04.002
Received 18 October 2016; Accepted 27 April 2017
Available online 04 May 2017
2214-157X/ © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/).
A.M. Aboghrara et al. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 10 (2017) 111–120

Nomenclature To1 outlet air temperature through jet, above jet plate
(K)
L length of heater (mm) To outlet air temperature through heater (K)
W width of heater (mm) Tap mean temperature of absorbing plate (K)
Hg mean gap thickness between the absorbing plate Tc mean temperature of the glass cover, (K)
and the jet plate (mm) TA ambient temperature (K)
Aa absorber area (mm2) hw convection heat-transfer coefficient from glass
Ah heater area (mm2) cover due to the wind (W/m2 K)
dj jet diameter (mm) hr, c–s radiation heat-transfer coefficient between the
I solar- insulation rate incident on the glass cover cover and the sky. (W/m2 K)
(W/m2) hc, f–bp thermal convection by fluid to bottom plate (W/
Vw wind velocity of the ambient air (m/s) m2 K)
τc, transmissivity of solar radiation of the glass cover hc, ap–f thermal convection by absorbing plate to the fluid
αap absorptivity of solar radiation of the absorbing (W/m2 K)
plate hr, ap–bp, thermal radiation by absorbing plate and the
η Efficiency of the air heater bottom plate, (W/m2 K)
qu useful energy gain (W/m2) hr, ap–c, thermal radiation by glass cover to absorbing plate
cp specific heat of air (kJ/kg K) (W/m2 K)
Ta temperature air flowing through channel above hc, ap–c thermal convection by glass cover to absorbing
bottom plate (K) plate (W/m2 K)
Tf temperature air flowing through channel above jet ṁ air mass flow-rate per unit area of heater (kg/m2 s)
plate (K)

Jet plate solar air heater is extensively used in the fields of space heating, drying of agriculture crops and supply of hot air in buildings
due to its higher convective heat transfer coefficient and collector efficiency. Kercher and Tabakoff [14] conducted an experiment on
jet plate solar air heater and derived a correlation for Nusselt number. Metzer et al. [15] have studied heat transfer characteristics for
inline and staggered arrays of circular jets with cross flow spent air. Kays and Crawford [16] have developed the correlation for
Nusselt number which is generally used in the parallel flow air heaters. The developed correlation is used for the case of turbulent
flow between two plates with one side heated and another insulated. Florschuetz et al. [17] have studied heat transfer characteristics
of impinging jets with cross – flow. Choudhury and Garg [18] evaluated the gain in air temperature increment and performance
efficiency of the jet concept air heater over that of the parallel plate air heater with duct depth 10.0 cm and length 2.0 m is 15.5 °C to
2.5 °C and 26.5–19.0% respectively, for air flow rates in the range 50.0–250.0 kg/hm2. Gao et al. [19] have found the correlations for
Nusselt number in jet plate solar collector. Singh [20] has analytically presented the heat transfer enhancement in a continuous
longitudinal fins solar air heater for different pitches.
Kurtbas et al. [21] have studied solar air heater with free and fixed fins and obtained increased heat transfer coefficient and
output air stream temperature. Belusko et al. [22] have investigated the improvement on heat transfer coefficient by providing a jet
impingement in unglazed solar air heater. Adam et al. [23] have theoretically investigated the effect of mass flow rate, depth of flow
channel and length of collector on thermal performance and pressure drop through the channel with and without porous medium.
Yunfei Sebastian et al. [24] have presented the experimental and numerical results on heat transfer characteristics of inline and
staggered hole jet plate in cross flow condition. Hematian et al. [25] have experimentally observed the lower collector efficiency in
forced convection than natural convection for a parallel plate solar air heater. But, heat loss is observed lower due to low temperature
difference between outlet and inlet air. Chauhan and Thakur [26] have experimentally investigated and correlated the effect of
geometrical parameters (i.e. the jet hole diameter, streamwise and spanwise pitch of the jet holes) on Nusselt number and friction
factor for impinging jet solar air heater. Goel et al. [27] have analytically presented the effect of geometrical parameters on thermal
behaviour of an inline hole jet plate solar air heater.
The sufficient literatures are available on parallel plate, longitudinal fins, cross and non cross flow inline and staggered hole jet
plate solar air heaters. But, So far, applying jet impingement at corrugated plate is still absent in the literature for in solar air heater
application The present work is focused on analyzing flow and heat transfer in solar air heaters.

2. Materials and method

2.1. Experimental design

Fig. 1 illustrates the block diagram of the experimental design adopted in this study.

2.2. Materials

In this study, the proposed design is compared with previous models of SAHs to determine the potential enhancement that can be
achieved regarding the temperature outlet, the useful energy, and its efficiency. The schematic diagram of the SAH designs with, SAH
design with jet impingement on flat absorber plate are shown in Fig. 2 (A), and the schematic diagram of the proposed SAH model

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Solar Ambient Inlet Mass Flow

Preliminary input data Rate
Irradiance Temperature Temperature

Output results:
Evaluating parameters
Outlet Temperature Useful Heat Gain Efficiency

Objectives

1. To determine the potential enhancement achieved by the proposed SAH compare

to previous SAH (with jet impingement on flat absorber plate)

2. To validate with mathematical analysis to predict the optimal values of the

proposed SAH elements

Fig. 1. Block diagram of the experimental design.

with jet impingement on corrugated absorber plate is illustrated in Fig. 2(B). The collector includes a frame of rectangular cross-
section having an inlet and outlet for passage of air, sheet of glass cover at the top of the frame, an absorber plate mounted in the
frame below the cover. The absorber is a corrugated plate coated with black paint on both sides and a jet plate spaced a distance
below the absorber plate. Therefore, the jets of air are directed through the holes of the jet plate and impinge on the lower surface of
the corrugated absorber plate to produce efficient heat transfer, while channels facilitated the corrugated flow of the spent jets are to
be discharged through the outlet.

3. Theoretical analyses

3.1. Assumptions

For modelling purposes, a number of simplifying assumptions are made to lay the foundations without obscuring the basic
physical situation. These assumptions are:

1. Thermal performance of SAH is a steady-state.

2. The sky can be considered as a black body for long-wavelength radiation at an equivalent sky-temperature.
3. Loss through the front and back are to air at the same ambient temperature.
4. Dust and dirt on the collector and the shading of the heater absorbing-plate are negligible.
5. Thermal inertia of heater components is negligible.
6. Operating temperatures of heater components and mean air-temperatures in the air channels are all assumed to be uniform.
7. Temperature of the air varies only in the flow direction.
8. Thermal losses through the heater backs are mainly due to the conduction across the insulation: those caused by the wind and the
thermal radiation of the insulation are assumed negligible.
9. The holes of said jet plate are circular
10. There are a negligible temperature drop through glass cover, absorber plate and bottom plate.

3.2. Mathematical model

The thermal network for the propose design of SAH with jet impingement on corrugated plate is illustrated in Fig. 3.
The solar radiation absorbed by the absorbing plate per unit area S (W/m2), which is equal to the difference between the incident

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of SAH design with jet impingement (A) on flat absorber plate. (B) on a corrugated absorber plate.

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Fig. 3. Thermal network for propose design solar air-heater.

solar-radiation and the optical loss, is obtained as [28]. Under steady state conditions, the energy balance equations for the cover,
absorber, jet plate, back plate, air in the passage between back plate and jet plate and air in the passage between absorber and back
plate in case of the jet plate air heater are:
S ≃ 0.96 τc αap I , (1)
where the factor “0.96” represents the averaged transmittance absorptance.

• On the glass cover

The absorptivity of solar radiation by the glass cover is αc, so the energy gain is αcI. Hence, the energy balance for the glass cover
requires
αc I + (hcap − c + hrap − c )(Tap − Tc) = (hw +hrc − s)(Tc − Ta) (2)

• On the absorbing plate

the absorbed solar radiation (S) is distributed to thermal losses to the glass cover by natural convection represented by hc, ap–c and
by thermal radiation represented by hr, ap–c, to the jet plate by thermal radiation represented by hr, ap–j, which is the radiation heat-
transfer coefficient between the absorbing plate and the jet plate, and to the fluid by convection represented by hc, ap–a2 (W/m2 K),
which is the convection heat-transfer coefficient of the fluid on the absorbing plate. Hence, the energy balance for the absorbing plate
requires
S (Ah / Aa ) = (hcap − c + hrap − c )(Tap − Tc) + hrap − j (Tap − Tj ) + hcap − a2 (Tap − To1) (3)

• For the fluid, it is obtained as [29].

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1. The fluid between bottom plate and jet plate

Cp m1̇ (To1 − TA) = hcj − a1 (Tj − Ta) + hcb − a1 (Tb − Ta) (4)

2. The fluid between absorber and jet plate

Cp m1̇ (To − To1) = hcj − a2 (Tj − To1) Ah + hcap − a2 (Tap − To1)(Aa ) (5)

• On jet plate
hrap − j (Tap − Tj )(Aa / Ah ) = hcj − a2 (Tj − To1) + hcj − a1 (Tj − Ta) + hrj − bp (Tj − Tbp) (6)
On the bottom plate, the heat gains from the fluid via convection represented by hc, bp–a1 and from the jet plate via thermal
radiation represented by hr, j–bp are balanced by the thermal loss to the ambient environment via conduction represented by hb (W/
m2 K) which is the conduction heat-transfer coefficient across the insulation, that is,
hrj − bp (Tj − Tbp) = hcbp − a1 (Tbp − Ta) + hb (Tbp − TA) (7)
TA + TO1
where Ta is Ta = 2
It is found from Eq. (2)
αc I + (hcap − c + hrap − c )(Tap) + (hw + hrc − s)(Ta)
Tc =
(hcap − c + hrap − c + hw + hrc − s) (8)
From Eq. (3)
S (Ah / Aa ) + (hcap − c + hrap − c )(Tc) + (hrap − j )(Tj ) + (hcap − a2 )(To1)
Tap =
(hcap − c + hrap − c + hrap − j + hcap − a2 ) (9)
From Eq. (4)
ṁ 1 (TA) + hcj − a1 (Tj − Ta) + hcb − a1 (Tb − Ta)
To1 =
Cp ṁ 1 (10)
From Eq. (5)
ṁ 1 (To1) + hcj − a2 (Tj − To1)(Ah ) + hcap − a2 (Tap − To1)(Aa )
To =
Cp ṁ 1 (11)
From Eq. (6)
(hrap − j Tap )*(Aa / Ah ) + (hcj − a2 To1) + (hcj − a1 Ta ) + (hrj − bp Tbp )
Tj =
⎛A ⎞
hcj − a2 + hcj − a1 + hrj − bp + ( ⎜ Aa ⎟ *h )
⎝ h ⎠ rap − j (12)

and from Eq. (7)

(hb TA) + (hrj − bp Tj ) + (hca1− bp Ta )
Tbp =
(hb ) + (hrj − bp ) + (hca1− bp ) (13)
Obtained as [30]. The efficiency of solar heat gain of the heater is
Cp (m1̇ )(To − Ti )
η =
I*Ah (14)
where: hw recommended by [31] as
hw = 5 . 7 + 3 . 8Vw ,

Vw (m/s) is the wind velocity of the ambient air and it is usually assumed that

Vw = 1.5 m /s hw = 11.4 W / m2 K

And hrc − s is obtained as [32].

(Tc − Ts)
hrc − s = (Tc + Ts)(Tc2 + Ts2 )
(Tc − Ta) (15)
−8
where σ=5.67×10 W/m K is the Stefan–Boltzmann constant,
2 4

and the sky temperature Ts (K) is estimated by the formulation given by [33],

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Ts = 0. 0552Ta1.5 (16)
The radiation heat-transfer is obtained as [34].
2
σ (Tap + Tc2 )(Tap + Tc)
hrap − c = 1 1
+ −1
∈ ap ∈c (17)
2
σ (Tap + T 2j )(Tap + Tj )
hrap − j = 1 1
+ ∈ −1
∈ ap j (18)

σ (T 2j 2
+ Tbp )(Tj + Tbp)
hrj − bp = 1 1
+ ∈ −1
∈j bp (19)
(Tap − To1)
hcap − a2 = (hrap − j )* (T (20)
ap − Ta)
The conduction heat-transfer coefficient across the insulation is estimated by
ki
hb =
b (21)
where ki (W/m K) is the thermal conductivity of the insulation and (b) m is the mean thickness of the insulation.
The convection heat-transfer coefficient between the glass cover and the absorbing plate is calculated by
K
hcap − c = NUap − c
Hc (22)
And Nuap–c is the Nusselt number for natural convection in the channel formed by the cover and the absorbing plate. Obtained as
NUap − c = 0 . 1673 (Ra*cosθ )0 . 2917 (23)
where (θ°) is the angle of inclination of the heater and (Ra) is the Rayleigh number which is defined as
ρ2 cp gβ (Tap − Tc) Hc3
Ra =
kμ (24)
In which ρ (kg/m ), β (1/K) and μ (kg/m s) are the density, thermal- expansion coefficient and dynamic viscosity of air, and
3

g (m/s2) is the acceleration due to gravity.

Nuap– f = 0.0743Re0.76 (25)
where Re is the Reynolds number, defined as follows:
ρVf Dh
Re =
μ (26)
where Vf (m/s) is the mean velocity of fluid in the channel.

4. Experimental set up

The experimental test setup was designed and fabricated to study the effect of jet impingement on the corrugated absorber plate,
through circular jets in a duct flow of solar air heater, and compared with conventional solar air heater on flat plate absorber.

Fig. 4. (A) Schematic diagram of proposed design of SAH. And (B) Photograph of the experimental setup.

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A.M. Aboghrara et al. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 10 (2017) 111–120

Table 1
detailed for parts, size and type of material SAH.

Parts Size Type of material

Solar air heater box (1400*300*140) mm inside Glass Wood, Coated with black paint
Entry section, and exit section, (600, 400) mm (Aluminium)
Glass cover, (1400*300) mm Thickness (3) mm Glass, Transmitivity (0.9), Emissivity (0.85)
Corrugated absorber plate (1400*300) mm, Thickness (1) mmDiameter cycle of (Aluminium) Emissivity of 0.9Absorptivity of 0.9, Coated
corrugated (10) mm with black paint
Jet plate (1400*290) mm, Thickness (1) mmJet diameter (3) mmX= Aluminium, Emissivity of 0.9Absorptivity of 0.9Coated with
80 mm Y= 40 mm black paint

As shown in Fig. 4A, and Table 1, the collector includes a frame of rectangular cross-section having an inlet and outlet for passage
of air, sheet of glass cover at the top of the frame, an absorber plate mounted in the frame below the cover. The absorber is a
corrugated plate coated with black paint on both sides and a jet plate spaced a distance below the absorber plate. Moreover, the jets of
air are directed through the holes of the jet plate and impinge on the lower surface of the corrugated absorber plate to produce
efficient heat transfer, while the channels facilitated the corrugated flow of the spent jets to be discharged through the outlet.
A uniform heat flux is provided by solar simulator, to maintain uniform heat flux of (500–1000) W/m2.
In order to prevent heat loss to surroundings, the whole periphery of the rectangular duct was covered with 50 mm wooden blocks
from all the sides of the duct.

5. Experimental procedure and measuring

The jet plate inserted in between the back plate and the target (absorber) plate and air leakage from the setup was checked before
each experimental run. The absorber plate heated by the fabricated solar simulator placed over the test section of the absorber to
produce uniform heat flux of (500–1000) W/m2. Then, the blower was switched ON to let a predetermined rate of air inflow into the
duct before changing the air flow rates for each experiment at uniform heat flux. The system allows attaining a steady state before the
data record. The constant state assumes to be achieved when no considerable variations in temperatures between successive scans are
observed for 10–12 min.
During experimentation the following parameters were measured for each set of readings:

Table 2
Experimental result at different solar radiation and mass flow rate.

Solar Mass flow Temperatures (K) Efficiency=m cp Δt/I*A

radiation rate (m)
kg/s Average absorber Tap Inlet Ti Outlet To Δt=To-Ti

Flat Corrugated Flat Corrugated Flat Corrugated Flat Corrugated 1) Flat 2) Corrugated Δeffy= effy
2-effy 1

500 0.01 317 319.4 303 306.1 309.6 316.2 6.6 10.1 0.315543 0.482876 0.167333
0.015 317 319.3 303 306.8 308.6 316 5.6 9.2 0.4016 0.659771 0.258171
0.023 315.6 318.5 303 307.4 307.8 313.6 4.8 6.2 0.527817 0.681764 0.153947
0.028 315 319 303.7 308.2 307.7 313.3 4 5.1 0.535467 0.68272 0.147253
600 0.01 318 320 303 306.2 310 317.3 7 11.1 0.278889 0.442238 0.163349
0.015 317 319.7 303 306.3 309.3 316.5 6.3 10.2 0.3765 0.609571 0.233071
0.023 316 320.3 303.3 308 309 315.3 5.7 7.3 0.522319 0.668935 0.146616
0.028 315 319.3 303.7 308.1 308.1 314.1 4.4 6 0.490844 0.669333 0.178489
700 0.01 318.5 320.7 304.2 306.6 311 317 6.8 10.4 0.232218 0.355156 0.122938
0.015 319 320.6 303.5 307.3 310 316.8 6.5 9.5 0.332959 0.486633 0.153674
0.023 319.2 321.2 303.8 307.4 309 315.3 5.2 7.9 0.40843 0.620499 0.212069
0.028 318.6 319.9 303.7 308.6 308.7 315 5 6.4 0.478095 0.611962 0.133867
800 0.01 319 322.3 304.6 307.4 312 318.6 7.4 11.2 0.221119 0.334667 0.113548
0.015 319.6 322 305 307.6 312 317.2 7 9.6 0.31375 0.430286 0.116536
0.023 320.2 322.6 304.8 307.8 310.3 316.5 5.5 8.7 0.377994 0.597918 0.219924
0.028 317 320.3 304.7 309.1 310.2 316.3 5.5 7.2 0.460167 0.6024 0.142233
900 0.01 319.5 324.6 305.5 308.5 313.2 318.9 7.7 10.4 0.204519 0.276233 0.071714
0.015 320 325.7 305.9 309.1 313.4 318.3 7.5 9.2 0.29881 0.36654 0.06773
0.023 321.4 323.4 305.7 309.5 312 318 6.3 8.5 0.384867 0.519265 0.134398
0.028 322 323.5 305.9 309.5 311.8 317.2 5.9 7.7 0.438785 0.572652 0.133867
1000 0.01 330.9 325.6 306.2 308.7 314.7 320 8.5 11.3 0.20319 0.270124 0.066934
0.015 330.6 325 306 309.7 314.3 319.7 8.3 10 0.297614 0.358571 0.060957
0.023 328.2 324.4 306.6 309.8 313.5 319.2 6.9 9.4 0.379369 0.516821 0.137452
0.028 325.7 324.2 306.5 309.8 312.6 317.4 6.1 7.6 0.408293 0.508693 0.1004
Average 6.271 8.758333 0.143186

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1. Average Temperature of the absorber plate at various locations (Tap).

2. Temperature of air at inlet (Ti).
3. Temperature of outlet. (To)

Fig. 5. (A-F) Effect of mass flow rate with efficiency and outlet temperature at varies solar radiation. (A) effect of mass flow rate at 500 w/m2 solar radation. (B) effect
of mass flow rate at 600 w/m2 solar radation. (c) effect of mass flow rate at 700 w/m2 solar radation (D) effect of mass flow rate at 800 w/m2 solar radation. (E) effect
of mass flow rate at 900 w/m2 solar radation (F) effect of mass flow rate at 1000 w/m2 solar radation.

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4. Mass flow rate. (ṁ )

5. Solar radiation. (I)

6. Result and observation

The thermal efficiency is usually used to evaluate the performance of solar air heaters (SAH) and thus, the principal objective of
the present study is to determine the thermal efficiency of SAH with jet impingement on the corrugated plate absorber. The average
thermal efficiencies as a function of air flow rate and solar radiation were analyzed and discussed in this section. Similarly, the
present results have been compared with the flat plate absorber under similar condition to determine the enhancement in thermal
efficiency. The thermal efficiency increases with increased in flow rate until it reaches a value of 0.28 kg/s and after that, it begins to
decrease as shown in Table 2 and this was demonstrated clearly in Fig. 5. The minimum and the maximum thermal efficiencies
achieved for the flat plate absorber was between 20% and 53% under solar radiation between 500 and 1000 W/m2 and flow rate
range 0.01–0.028 kg/s. Similarly, the thermal efficiency for corrugated plate absorber rises with increased in flow rate, percentages
obtained were 27% and 68% for a mass flow rate of (0.01–0.028) kg/s.
The comparison of thermal efficiencies between the smooth duct and corrugated plate revealed that the later absorber has more
enhancement in heat transfer with the absorber (Figs. 4 and 5). Moreover, the thermal efficiency (ƞ) of corrugated absorber system is
higher than that of flat plate absorber system because of breaking the laminar flow and reheating of air emerging from the lower
absorber and bigger area.

Efficiency = m c p Δt / I *A, Δt = To − Ti, cp = 1004(kJ/ kg .K)

Fig. 6. (A-D) Effect of solar radiation perimeter with efficiency at varies mass flow rate. (A) effect of solar radation at 0.01 kg/S mass flow rate. (B) effect of solar
radation at 0.015 kg/S mass flow rate. (C) effect of solar radation at 0.023 kg/S mass flow rate. (D) effect of solar radation at 0.028 kg/S mass flow rate.

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A.M. Aboghrara et al. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 10 (2017) 111–120

6.1. Effect of mass flow rate

The effect of mass flow rate with efficiency and outlet temperature at several solar irradiations was illustrated in Fig. 5 (A-F). It
shows that the increase in mass flow rate (ṁ ) at fixed jet hole diameter (dj = 0.003 m) causes increase in collector efficiency (η) and
decrease in outlet temperature (To).

6.2. Effect of solar radiation

The efficiency of the SAH with corrugated plate absorber and SAH with flat plate absorbers were compared at various solar
radiation same conditions. The effect of solar radiation perimeter on the effectiveness of the absorbers at different mass flow rate was
demonstrated in Fig. 6 (A-D).
It can be noted from these figures that the efficiency decreases with the solar intensity increases. It is also apparent that the
highest solar intensity produces the lowest efficiency. The maximum value of efficiency of solar air heater with jet impingement and
corrugated plate is 68.2% for solar intensity I=500 W/m2 and mass flow rate 0.028 kg/s. And minimum value is 27% for I=1000 W/
m2, mass flow rate 0.01 kg/s.
we investigate experimentally the natural convection inside the channel between the flat plate absorber and wavelike absorber of
the corrugated plate absorber solar air heater, which is crucial for minimizing the heat loss due to natural convection and improving
the efficiency of the solar air heater.

7. Conclusions

The jet impingement on corrugated absorber plate is an effective technique to enhance the rate of heat transfer as compared to jet
impingement on smooth solar air heaters. The study found that the thermal efficiency of the absorber plates increases with the
increase in mass flow rates of air due to the breakage of laminar sub-layer that creates higher turbulence of air, which results in
greater heat transfer. However, the comparison between the smooth and the corrugated surfaces of the absorber plate at different air
flow rates and solar radiations revealed that the average thermal efficiency of the systems increases to about 14% with a 3 K increase
in temperature.

References

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