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An indoor standard test procedure is developed to experimentally investigate the steady state energy and exergy performance of single-pass flat plate solar air heater (SPF-PSAH), roughened plate dual-pass solar air heater (RPDP-SAH), finned plate dual-pass solar air heater (FPDPSAH) and wire mesh dual-pass solar air heater (WMDPSAH) at varied mass flow rates and solar intensities. The analytical solution of the energy balance equations for various elements of the SPFPSAH, RPDPSAH, FPDPSAH and WMDPSAH is determined using a MATLAB 8.1 program and correlated with experimental findings. The analytical and experimental results show that the energy and exergy performance of WMDPSAH is superior to FPDPSAH, RPDPSAH and SPF-PSAH. The pressure drop of WMDPSAH is higher than that of FPDPSAH, RPDPSAH and SPFPSAH. From the economic analysis, WMDPSAH is found economically viable within the opted conditions compared with FPDPSAH and RPDPSAH. The analytical and experimental results are in fairly good agreement.Keywords Wire mesh · Energy · Exergy · Solar air heater · Efficiency · Dual pass List of symbols A c Area of the collector (m 2 ) A f Total area of the fins (m 2 ) B Flow channel width (m) c p Specific heat of air (J/kg K) d w Wire diameter of wire mesh (m)

In this paper, a mathematical model based on the energy balance equations is developed to study the energy and exergy performances of single, double, and triple pass solar air heaters. The energy and exergy performances of solar air heaters are determined by simulation using Matlab-8.1. The influence of mass flow rate on the rise in air temperature, energy efficiency, improvement efficiency, exergy efficiency, and irreversibility are studied. The energy and exergy performance of the triple pass is higher than the single and the double pass conditions. The results obtained from the analytical models are in good agreement with experimental data reported by earlier researchers.

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