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Updated: Jul 11, 2025

Experimental System of Solar Adsorption Refrigeration with Concentrated Collector
Published on: October 18, 2017
Energy and enviro-economic analysis of a solar air heater with wedge turbulators
Paramasivam Balakrishnan1, Elumalai Vengadesan2, Bibek Bhowal3
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Chennai, 603203, India. balakrip@srmist.edu.in.
Abstract:
Solar air heaters (SAH) convert solar energy to thermal energy for food processing industries and commercial space heating applications, as solar energy is cost-free. In this experimental study, the thermal performance of the solar air heater has been successively improved using different roughness elements over the absorber. The triangle-shaped wedges in three structures (inline, serpentine, and clustered structure) are investigated in this work. Thermal performance comparison is made with a SAH with a plain absorber. A maximum air temperature rise of 19 °C is observed for the SAH with wedges in a clustered structure. The absorber surface temperature for clustered structured roughness elements is 76.8 °C with an average heat loss coefficient of 4.43 W/m2·K. The useful heat absorption using clustered structure wedges is 33%, 17.9%, and 6.6% higher than the SAH with plain, inline, and serpentine structured wedges. SAH's maximum thermal and exergy efficiency with clustered structured elements is 70.4% and 1.64%. The average thermal efficiency of inline, serpentine, and clustered arrangement is 13.3%, 25.3%, and 35.6% higher than the SAH with a plain absorber. The proposed SAH design shows a sustainability index 1.01, and lower payback periods show economic and environmental viability.
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