Thermal Efficiency of a Solar Air-Heating Collector with a Metal Chip Absorber

Abstract

It is known that one of the main issues of heat transfer in complex designs of solar air-heating collectors is the problem of determining the coefficient of convective heat transfer in some parts of absorbers. The article studies the processes of heat transfer occurring in a solar air-heating collector with an absorber, which is a system of metal flow chips and a V-shaped surface. A description of the design of a solar air-heating collector with a metal chip absorber is given. The absorber allows us to increase the contact surface between the coolant and the absorber. The experimental procedure and the results are presented. The experiments have shown that within the range of 850 – 950 W / m2 of direct incident solar radiation density, the average heating of coolant is 17.5 °C; within the range of 650 – 750 W / m2, it is 14.1 °C; within the range of 450 – 550 W / m2, it measures 10.1 °C. The maximum coolant heating is 27 °C which is equal to the output collector temperature 60 °C. The average heating of the coolant is 14 °C, which corresponds to the average output temperature of 45 °C. According to the data obtained in the experiment, empirical formulas are concluded. They are presented in the form of the dependence Nu = f (Re), it is aimed at determining the heat transfer coefficient of flow metal chips and V-shaped absorbers of a solar air-heating collector. The dependence of the absorbers heat transfer from metal flow chips and the V-shaped surface of the solar air-heating collector on the Re numbers within the range of 103÷104 is shown. A formula is derived that allows us to compare the effectiveness of absorbers of various types with a flat absorber of a solar air-heating collector.