Experimental investigations on a forced convection solar air heater using packed bed absorber plates with phase change materials |
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| Authors: | R Arul Kumar B Ganesh Babu |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hindusthan College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, India;2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Roever College of Engineering and Technology, Permabalur, India |
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| Abstract: | In this work, the performance of a forced convection solar air heater was evaluated using using three packed bed absorber plate configurations and compared with flat absorber plate. The phase change material (paraffin wax) was packed in the pin-fin, trianglular and circular absorber plate configurations. The performance parameters such as, outlet air temperature, thermo-hydraulic efficiency, exergy efficiency and pressure drop were predicted and compared. The results showed that the packed bed absorber plate configurations using paraffin wax have higher outler air temperature in the range of 2–5°C with 3–40% higher thermo-hydraulic efficiency and 2–20% higher exergy efficiency when compared to flat absorber plate. However, the packed bed absorver plates have higher pressure drop when compared to flat absorber plate. |
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| Keywords: | Forced convection solar air heater packed bed absorber plate phase change heat storage |
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