Analysis of Thermal Performance of Double Flow Finned Absorber Solar Air Heater

Abstract

This paper investigated the thermal performance of a solar air collector with attached rectangular fins both theoretically and experimentally. The effects of mass flow rate (0.015 kg/s to 0.06 kg/s) and fin spacing on thermal performance and temperature rise were investigated using varying solar radiation intensity (500, 600, 700, and 800 W/m2). The results show that, when using a finned absorber instead of a plane absorber, the maximum thermal efficiency of 1.264 times was achieved. Additionally, at a lower mass flow rate of 0.015 kg/s, a maximum increase in temperature rise has been observed to be 1.243 times greater than that of a plane absorber.