Experimental study of heat transfer enhancement in solar air heater with different angle of attack of V-down continuous ribs

Abstract

In this paper, an experimental study on the effect of angle attack in V-down continuous ribs on heat transfer and friction factor in an artificially roughened air heater duct is presented. The electric heater with a constant heat flux as a simulation of the indoor testing solar air heater is used to heat the roughened part of rectangular duct while other parts were insulated. The system and operating conditions were used to decide the range of parameters for the study. The ratio of the width to height of the duct (W/H) was 12, the relative roughness pitch (p/e) was 10, the relative roughness height (e/Dh) was 0.033 and the angle of attack of flow (α) was 30-80°. The air flow rate corresponded to Reynolds number between 3500 –10,000. The result of heat transfer and friction factor had been compared to those for smooth duct under similar flow and thermal boundary condition. The thermo-hydraulic performance also had been considered. As a result, the maximum enhancement of Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor(f) were 2.34 and 2.45 times, respectively. For each variation of angle attack of flow, the thermo-hydraulic performance has been compared and the result shows that a V-down continuous rib with the angle of attack of flow as 60° gave the best thermo-hydraulic performance.