Effects of Louvered Parameters on Exergetic Performance of Louvered Finned Solar Air Heater

Abstract

The aim of the present study to improve the performance of solar air heater because of low thermo-physical properties of air. In the current work, an attempt has been made to improve the performance of the heater by employing louvered fins to the absorber plate, as it not only enhances heat transfer coefficient but also improve heat transfer area. The effect of exergy performance on the geometrical parameters of louvered fin i.e., louvered angle, louvered pitch and louvered length has been studied and analyzed. The results are compared to plane solar air heater (PSAH) to evaluate the effectiveness of louvered finned solar air heater (LFSAH). The exergy efficiency of LFSAH is comparatively higher for all the operating conditions except for higher mass flow rate where it may even go below that of PSAH; possibly due to the higher pressure drop and more loss of exergy at high mass flow rate. In addition, the results conclude that for louvered parameters viz., louvered angle 20°, fin pitch to louvered pitch ratio 0.75 and louvered length to louvered pitch ratio 1.25, high exergy performance of SAH is obtained as compared to other louvered parameter values.