Three dimensional CFD analysis of solar air heater for enhancement of thermal performance using surface corrugation

A CFD analysis is carried out in the present work to augment the performance of a solar air heater using absorber plate with different surface corrugations. It is observed from the analysis that an arc-shaped corrugated absorber plate provides better heat transfer characteristics at all mass flow rates when compared to base model without corrugations. However, the V-shaped corrugated absorber plate provides better heat transfer rate at higher mass flow rates and a sine wave corrugated absorber plate provides effective heat transfer at lower mass flow rates. It is generally found that absorber plate with corrugated geometry helps to increase the Nusselt number of the air medium which in turn helps in enhanced convective heat transfer to the medium.