Thermohydraulic performance augmentation of triangular duct solar air heater using semi-conical vortex generators: Numerical and experimental study

Thermohydraulic performance augmentation using turbulence promotors is a commonly adopted technique in solar air heater (SAH) applications. This article presents the thermohydraulic performance augmentation of triangular duct SAH using semi-conical vortex generators (SCVG) using computational fluid dynamics and experimental methodology for various flow Reynolds numbers ranging from 6000 to 21,000. An in-depth parametric analysis is undertaken to establish the influence of flow attack angle, relative longitudinal pitch, relative transverse pitch and cone diameter of SCVG on the thermohydraulic performance as indicated by the thermohydraulic performance parameter (THPP). The results reveal that the SCVG generates longitudinal vortices and introduces flow impingement zones which significantly affects the flow and heat transfer characteristics of air heaters. Correlations for Nusselt number and friction factor are established, which predicts the performance outcomes with an average error of 6.74% and 4.46%, respectively. The optimal THPP is determined to be 1.74 using artificial neural network model and Bonobo Optimization algorithm. The SCVG produces THPP values well above unity for the entire flow Reynolds number range of 6000–21,000.