Energy and exergy analysis of solar air heater with non-uniform porous medium under varying solar intensity and radiation effects: a 3-D CFD study

The effect of a thin porous layer on the performance of a solar air heater (SAH) is investigated for both uniform and non-uniform configurations. 3-D computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations of SAH are performed for turbulent flow, and the transient performance with porous medium configurations is studied. A discrete-ordinate (D-O) model is employed, and diurnal variations of solar heat flux and inlet air temperature variations are considered in this study. The porous medium above the absorber plate significantly enhances the SAH's thermo-hydraulic performance parameter (THPP). The proposed configuration reduces the irreversibility in heat transfer and the possible hot spots that could occur when ribs are employed as artificial roughness, thereby enhancing the Nusselt number (Nu). The highest increment in Nu is obtained as 7.5 times, leading to maximum enhancement in THPP by 60% for descending porous medium compared to uniform porous medium configuration. Further, from the exergy analysis, the descending porous medium reported higher collector efficiency (66-70%). Owing to higher exergy gain and lower exergy losses, the energetic efficiency of the descending porous configuration is higher than the uniform porous configuration. Both thermo-hydraulic and exergy performance increases due to conduction and radiation within the porous medium apart from convection.