This paper investigates the impacts of flow configurations on the thermal performance of a solar heater system. Recycled aluminium cans (RAC) have been utilised as turbulators with a double pass single duct solar air collector. CFD software of COMSOL Multiphysics V5.3a is used to model three designs: co-current (model A), counter-current (model B), and U-shape (model C). The numerical results show that the U-shape design offers 5.4% and 6.5%, respectively, greater thermal performance compared with the cocurrent and counter-current flow models. An outdoor experiment is performed based on the numerical modelling of flow configurations. The experimental setup is examined for three configurations of model C, namely, solar air heater (SAH) without RAC model C-I (plain model), SAH with in-line RAC layout (model C-II), and SAH with staggered RAC layout (model C-III). Furthermore, the double pass single duct solar air collector (model C) design is in a good agreement with the experimental data. The experimental study reveals that model C-III has a better thermal efficiency of 60.2%, compared to those of model C-II, 53.1%, and model C-I, 49.4%.

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