Sohel Chaudhari et al Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Applications www.ijera.

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ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 4, Issue 6( Version 6), June 2014, pp.47-50

RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS

CFD Analysis of Solar Air Heater

Sohel Chaudhari*, Mukesh Makwana**, Rajesh Choksi***, Gaurav Patel****
*(ME Student, Department of Mechanial Engineering, A.D.I.T., New V.V. Nagar)
**(Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanial Engineering, A.D.I.T., New V.V. Nagar)
***(Associate Professor, Department of Mechanial Engineering, A.D.I.T., New V.V. Nagar)
****(Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanial Engineering, A.D.I.T., New V.V. Nagar)

ABSTRACT
An attempt has been made to carry out CFD based analysis using FLUENT to fluid flow and heat transfer
characteristics of solar air heater. 3D model of the Solar Air heater involving air inlet, absorber plate, glass,
modelled by ANSYS Workbench and the unstructured grid was created in ANSYS. The results were obtained
by using ANSYS FLUENT software. This work is done by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool with
respect to flow and temperature distribution inside the solar air heater.
Keywords-Solar Energy, Solar Air Heater, Heat transfer, CFD.
heater which is extensively used in many applications
such as residential, industrial and agricultural fields.
I. INTRODUCTION Solar air heaters, because of their simplicity are
Solar energy is the most considerable energy cheap and most widely used collection devices of
source in the world. Sun, which is 1.495x1011 (m)
far from the earth and has a diameter of 1.39x109 solar energy, has great potential for low temperature
(m), would emit approximately 1353 (W/m2) on to a applications, particularly for drying of agricultural
surface perpendicular to rays, if there was no products. The thermal efficiency of a solar air heater
atmospheric layer. The world receives 170 trillion is significantly low because of the low value of the
(KW) solar energy and 30% of this energy is convective heat transfer coefficient between the
reflected back to the space, 47% is transformed to absorber plate and the air, leading to high absorber
low temperature heat energy, 23% is used for plate temperature and high heat losses to the
evaporation/rainfall cycle in the Biosphere and less surroundings. It has been found that the main thermal
than 0.5% is used in the kinetic energy of the wind, resistance to the heat transfer is due to the formation
waves and photosynthesis of plants. of a laminar sub-layer on the absorber plate heat-
Solar energy systems consist of many parts. The transferring surface.
most important part of these systems is the solar air A solar air heater absorbs incident solar
heaters where the heat transfer from sun to absorber radiations and transforms them into useful heat for
and absorber to fluid occurs. In order to affect the heating the collector fluid such as water and air. Solar
performance of these systems, generally air heaters, being inherently simple and cheap, are
modifications on solar air heaters are performed. most widely used collection devices. Solar air heaters
With the rapid development in civilization, man has find several applications in space heating, seasoning
increasingly become dependent on natural resources of timber and crop drying.
to satisfy his needs. Drying fruits and vegetables such
as grapes, pepper, pawpaw, etc. is one of those
indispensable processes that require natural resources II. PROBLEM STATEMENT
in the form of fuels. Solar energy air heaters are The objective of present study is to perform CFD
special kind of heat exchangers that transform solar simulation for solar air heater. The results obtained
radiation energy to internal energy of the transport by CFD simulation are been validated with
medium. The major component of any solar system is experimental results. The experimental conditions
the solar air heater. Of all the solar thermal air taken for solar air heater, the same has been used for
heaters, the solar air heaters though produce lower CFD simulation. The overall aim of this work is to
temperatures, have the advantage of being simpler in understand the flow behaviour and temperature
design, having lower maintenance and lower cost. To distribution of air inside the solar air heater and
obtain maximum amount of solar energy of minimum compare the outlet temperature of air with
cost the solar air heaters with thermal storage have experimental results and also will see results with
been developed. Solar air heater is type of solar air different parameters of solar air heater.

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Sohel Chaudhari et al Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Applications www.ijera.com
ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 4, Issue 6( Version 6), June 2014, pp.47-50

III. CFD ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON

OF CFD AND EXPERIMENTAL Table-1: Properties of air
RESULTS Property Value
The 3D model consisting of the solar air Mass flow rate of air 0.0203 kg/sec
collector involving air inlet, wavy structured absorber Density 1.1925 kg/m3
plate, and glass cover plate is modeled by ANSYS Thermal Conductivity 0.0259 W/m K
Workbench and the unstructured grid was created in Specific Heat 1006.2 J/kg K
ANSYS ICEM. The results were obtained by using
ANSYS FLUENT software Table-2: Properties of aluminium
Property Value
Density 2719 kg/m3
Thermal 202.4 W/m K
Conductivity
Specific Heat 871 J/kg K

Table-3: Properties of glass

Property Value
Density 2500 kg/m3
Thermal 744.3 W/m K
Conductivity
Specific Heat 670 J/kg K
Fig.1: 3D modeling
The simulation is carried out for different times
of the day 14 to 10 hrs. Then the results obtained by
this simulation compared with the experimental
results as shown in table 4. From table 4 and fig. 3 it
can be seen that the difference between experimental
and simulated outlet temperature is much similar.

Table-4: Comparison of experimental and simulated

results
Sr. Tim Solar Inlet Experim Simulati
No e Intens Tempe ent on
Hrs. ity rature results results
(W/m (k) Tempera Temper
2
) ture (k) ature (k)
1. 14 1000 304 330 347
Fig. 2: 3D mesh 2. 13 980 306 328 346
3. 12 950 303 330 348
The overall dimension for solar air heater is 4. 11 900 305 332 351
1000X1000X137 mm3 with 3 mm thick glass plate. A 5. 10 800 304 325 343
sheet of copper with thickness 0.001 m and 1x1 m2
area with longitudinal fins attached to its upper and
lower surfaces was used as the absorber plate. The
distance between two adjacent fins and fins height
are 0.1 and 0.04 m, respectively. Two sheets of
ordinary glass (0.003 m thick) were used to cover the
heater in order to minimize the heat losses from the
top of the air heater. The gap between the two glass
covers equals 0.03 m. Another sheet of galvanized
iron, with thickness 0.001 m, was used as a back
plate. The heater was insulated from the back and
sides using foam as an insulating material with
thickness 0.04 m. The absorber plate divides the gap Fig.3:-comparison of experiment and simulation
between the lower glass cover and the back plate into results
two channels of 0.05 m depth. [6]

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ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 4, Issue 6( Version 6), June 2014, pp.47-50

Also the temperature distribution and flow Constant mass flow rate 0.0203kg/s and inlet
distribution are obtained by CFD simulation. The temperature 305K is taken and the heat flux is varied
mesh file of geometry in fluent software shown in fig By the CFD simulation results are obtained. Results
4. The contours obtained for temperature distribution, of performance of solar air heater with different heat
velocity distribution and pressure distribution are flux are seen in table- 5.
shown in fig 5,6,7 respectively.

Table 5: Simulation Results

Sr. Heat flux Simulation results
no. Outlet Temperature(k)
1. 500 353
2. 490 352
3. 485 351
4. 450 348
5. 400 343
6. 350 338

Fig .4: Meshing file in fluent software

Graph 2:-Heat flux v/s temperature

Fig .5: contours of temperature distribution
Outlet temperature is decrease as heat flux is
decrease. The behavior can be seen in fig.

IV. CONCLUSION
In this present investigation, a numerical
prediction has been conducted to study heat transfer
and flow friction behaviors of a solar air heater
having fin on the absorber plate surface. The
following conclusions have been drawn from the
present work:
1. There is a good agreement results reference for
Fig .6: Contours of velocity magnitude(m/s) outlet air temperatures. Although there are some
small discrepancies due to some experimental
imperfectness matters, we still have a good
confidence in the CFD simulation program that
can be used in the future for more solar air heater
problem.
2. Effect of different heat flux value on solar air
heater shown that increase the value of heat flux
increase the thermal efficiency of solar air
heater.
3. In recent years CFD has been applied in the
design of solar air heater. The studies reported
Fig .7:contours of static pressure(pascal) that the quality of the solutions obtained from
CFD simulations are largely within the

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ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 4, Issue 6( Version 6), June 2014, pp.47-50

acceptable range proving that CFD is an

effective tool for predicting the behavior and
performance of a solar air heater.

REFERENCES
[1] Dr. A. A. Pawar, Prof. P.W. Ingel, Prof. B.
D. Deshmukh, Prof. K. C. Bhosale,”CFD
Analysis of solar flat plate collector’,
Innalternational journal of emerging
technology and advanced engineering,
volume 3, April 2013.
[2] Dr J L Bhagoria “CFD Analysis of Square
ribs on the Absorber Plate of Solar Air”
2nd International Conference on
Mechanical, Electronics and Mechatronics
Engineering, 17, june-2013.
[3] Anil Singh Yadav, J.L.Bhagoria “A CFD
Analysis of a Solar Air Heater Having
Triangular Rib Roughness on the Absorber
Plate” International Conference on Global
Scenario in Environment and Energy, 16,
march 2013.
[4] H.D.Ammari.” A mathematical model of
thermal performance of a solar air heater
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[5] A.A. El-Sebaii , S. Aboul-Enein , M.R.I.
Ramadan , S.M. Shalaby , B.M. Moharram
“Investigation of thermal performance of-
double pass-flat and v-corrugated plate
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November 2010.
[6] A.A. El-Sebaii , S. Aboul-Enein , M.R.I.
Ramadan , S.M. Shalaby , B.M. Moharram
“Thermal performance investigation of
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Science direct, 18 December 2010

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