Jr.

of Industrial Pollution Control 33(2)(2017) pp 1155-1162

www.icontrolpollution.com
Review Article

THE PERFORMANCE STUDY OF A SOLAR FLAT PLATE TYPE AIR

COLLECTOR WITH NATURAL AND FORCED CONVECTION
S. BABU SASI KUMAR 1* AND M. CHINNAPANDIAN 2

1
Associate Professor, Adhi college of Engineering and Technology, Oragadam, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

2
Professor and Head, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, St. Peter’s college of engineering and Technology,
Avadi, Chennai-600054 Tamilnadu, India

(Received 15 June, 2017; accepted 18 June, 2017)

Key words: Flat plate type air heater, Solar radiation, Efficiency, Drying chamber

ABSTRACT

In developing world, the usage of fossil fuel and electricity charges are being increased day by
day and they produce more environmental pollution. In intention of the above factor, there is
need to develop alternative energy with low cost. Solar power is one of the best ways to produce
energy. Solar flat plate type air collector (SFPTAC) is widely used for many solar applications.
Drying of agricultural food products is attractive and cost –effective application of solar power
as it becomes a potentially viable substitute for fuel-wood in major development of the world. A
SFPTAC is 2 × 1 m2 area and 5 mm thick aluminium sheet is coated with a black paint. An insulated
collector of about 10cm thickness and inside is covered by the glass wool of thickness 25 mm are
used on the surface of the enclosure. These tests were conducted to gather data from different
atmospheric conditions. The results were examined by both the free and forced convection.

INTRODUCTION conditioning. Technically, there are two methods

used for usability solar energy; they are Convectional
The sun is the composed of all renewable energy
and Non-convectional heating. An example for
sources. This renewable energy should be clean, safe
Convectional solar techniques is natural circulation
and free. Application of these sources of energy is
without external force and Non-convectional solar
utilised by millions of people at various places. One
techniques like forced convection includes pumps,
of the most excellent in future development area of
air blower or fans.
the application of solar energy is SFPTAC.
LITERATURE REVIEW
SFPTAC with the help of solar energy is utilised for
a variety of purposes. These devices are simple and Reviews of the literature survey are very useful to
easy to construct at low cost. A SFPTAC consists of analyse the experiments. At the expense of growth
transparent glass cover, absorber plate, insulating in the world's energy consumption, sources of
materials, drying trays and air blower. The air is conventional energy are the emergent need of the
passed through in between the absorber plate (AP) world. But conventional energy sources such as fossil
and the transfer glass cover. At the same time solar fuels have two main limitations. First, they are limited
radiation is absorbed by AP and the absorbed heat in size, and they produce environmental pollution.
air is passed through the channel into the drying Hence there is a need for alternative fuel renewable
trays. This heated air can be utilized into many more energy source to eliminate the demerits. There is
applications such as drying agricultural products, less knowledge about the sources and replacement
space, water and industrial process heating and air systems and the usage of these resources. Hence

*Corresponding authors email: sbs.kumar @yahoo.com

1156 KUMAR ET AL..
out of all the renewable energy sources the energy outside temperature, absorber plate, atmospheric
of solar has been found to be cost effective and the temperature and the solar radiator. This experiment
most promising energy that is abundantly available, was performed by two air flow rates of 0.016 kg/s
clean and inexhaustible is available worldwide. The and 0.025 kg/s. From these investigations they
solar plate converts solar radiation into heat energy obtained result as 6 mm thickness and flow rate 0.025
to meet the needs. The solar systems consist of kg/s which had higher collector efficiency and high
many parts. SFPTAC is one of the important parts temperature difference when compared to mass flow
of the system where the flat-plate collector absorber rate 0.016 kg/s (Bayraka).
plate transfers the solar power to the liquid flowing
(Sethi, et al., 2012) analysed the effect of air heater
through pipes. A lot of research work has been
solar duct that is fixed in front side with angular
expanded flat plate collector thermal efficiency (Rai,
shaped roughness elements on absorber plate. The
2012). Ljiljana et al. investigated that reflectors, to
specification of the duct has an ratio of width and
improve thermal efficiency solar flat plate type water
height of 11, roughness of relative pitch range of
heater proposed an optimal position. For that they
10-20, relative roughness height range of 0.021-
were being investigated and the flat plate collectors
0.036 m, arc angle range of 45 to 75 and Reynolds
for solar radiation heat without reflectors (Ljiljana, et
number range from 3600 to 18000. The experiment
al., 2012). Khatik et al. investigated the work based
used to development Nusselt number and friction
on the AP and concavity AP. The result showed that
factors correlation of roughness surface at different
rate of heat transfer concavity AP is 5.12% increased
operating parameters (Sethi, et al., 2012). (Yadav, et
because of the cavities area surface for reducing
al., 2013) experimentally analysed the characteristics
the radiation reflection losses (Rhushi, et al., 2010).
of the heat transfer and friction factor for turbulent
Prasad et al. performed a study with an angle of 28°
air flow through rectangular duct with roughness
with the horizontal towards the south-facing two
and smooth surfaces. The flow passage of roughed
identical cover, placed in flat-plate collector. To
surface in built up circular shape element arranged in
improve the efficiency of a collector, a collector was
arc angular fashion. The roughed wall is heated over
fixed and the other at an angle of 30º tilted manually
one wall while other three walls are kept insulated.
every two hours (Khatik, et al., 2014). Martinpoulos
These experiments stated that the maximum heat
et al. performed a study on polymer solar collector
transfer and friction factor 2.89 and 2.93 times more
experimentally and simulated model. This was done than the smooth surface duct (Yadav, et al., 2013). Sunil
to identify that the efficiency of collector by working chamoli et al. investigated the thermal efficiency of
fluid is involvement of conventional methods of heat double pass solar heater transfers heat more than the
transfer. Temperature, velocity distribution over a single pass solar heater. This was investigated with
surface area and collector efficiency were found to different techniques like extended surfaces, packed
be good agreement between both experimental and bed, corrugated absorber (Chamolia, et al., 2012).
CFD modelling (Missirlis, et al., 2014; Chii-Dong Ming Yang et al. performed a study to fabricate more
Ho, et al., 2011) investigated double –pass SFPTAC efficient and low cost solar type air heater. A number
with fin attachment. The double-pass SFPTAC was of experiments based on ASHRAE standard 93-2003
designed for supplying the air into absorber plate of was tested heater under the following parameters
upper and lower channels. They conducted number like time constant, thermal efficiency, indicant angle
of experiment and finally concluded that area of modifier and the synthetically resistance coefficient.
solar collector is double extended the fin area (Chii- From the result, the maximum instantaneous
Dong, Ho, et al., 2011). (Benli, 2013) had investigated thermal efficiency 0.40 was achieved at low flow rate
different types solar air collector, such as collector is of air 100 m3/h, solar irradiance on the collected area
reverse, straight corrugated trapeze and a base flat- 600 W/m2, temperature at inlet and outlet are 14°C
plate collector. The experiment was conducted at the and -5°C, solar incident angle 20°C and fan work at
same time at same day with same solar radiation. 290W power (Yang, et al., 2014). Anil Singh yadav
From the result analysis, flat type collector had more investigated CFD model analysis for turbulent flow
heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop take type solar air heater. They were tested five different
place (Benli, 2013). Faith Bayraka et al. investigated turbulent models by using ANSYS FLUNT V12.1
the performance of the initial energy and exergy of software and appear the performed calculation from
solar air heater inserted porous baffles with different Renormalisation group K-e model. Finally, they
thickness such as 6 mm and 10 mm and its area concluded that two dimensional convectional type
surface 50 cm2 are used as passage element inside the solar air heater transfers more heat and efficient
heater. The measured parameters are the inside and model (Yadav and Bhagoria, 2013). Groundout et al.
 THE PERFORMANCE STUDY OF A SOLAR FLAT PLATE TYPE AIR COLLECTOR WITH
NATURAL AND FORCED CONVECTION 1157

proposed the concept of advanced solar water heater. type solar air heater. Various performance
According to them, Flat plate type collectors generally techniques i.e., using packed bed materials, fins and
its losses more heat and less efficiency since only the corrugated/grooved surface enhanced the double
upper side of the absorber plate, heat is exposed to pass air convectional type solar heater to improve the
the sun (Groenhout, et al., 2002). Mohammadia et al. efficiency (Ravi and saini, 2016). Sarath Kumar et al.
performed a study with convectional and upward investigated dense improved solar collector model
single pass -type solar air heater internally fitted with produced conventional solar concept. They tested
fin and baffles. The performance analysis showed the model in two stages. Without this mechanism,
that upward single pass type solar air heater had the concentration in the first and second phase of
more increased outlet temperature and efficiency the concentration has been tested. They conducted
when compared to Convectional type solar air heater experiments in two different phases. The trial of
(Mohammadia and Sabzpooshani, 2013). Pin –yang the first phase was conducted without parabolic
Wang performed a study with the evacuated tubular concentrator. The collector is attached to it and testing
glass air heater with fixed parabolic concentrator. The conducted after dark. Efficient than conventional
system is making of 10 liked tubes; each tube fixed flat plate type solar water heater obtained results
with one parabolic concentrator. Air is gradually
improved to 15.3 percent (Sarath, et al., 2012).
passed through U-tube evacuated tube and gets
Manjunath et al. investigated AP with dimples and
heated. In the model of heat transfer was established
AP in both causes compared to conventional method,
outlet temperature of air, the heat power and its
carried out a CFD analysis. The convectional type AP
efficiency are calculated (Pin–yang, et al., 2014).
temperature is 50 degrees Celsius when the above
Abhishek Saxena et al. performed a study to improve
the dimple surface (Manjunath, et al., 2012).
the simple fabricated solar air heater efficiency. In
the model, the made up of absorption medium is Many researchers had to contact experiment based
granular carbon. The performance is carried out on on water heating flat plat collector. The objective
four different configurations by operating without of current experiment is based on convectional and
forced and forced convection (Saxena, et al., 2013). Non-convectional air heating system. There are
Bahrehmand et al. developed an analytical model of several advantage of solar flat plate type air heater
single and two-glass solar type air heater systems systems.
with convectional flow. It derived the heat balance
equations for various elements of the collectors 1. Simple in construction and easy to maintain.
like tin metal sheet in absorber plate, rectangular, After the set-up construction the maintenance cost is
triangular fins with different width, length, shape low.
and also to find out the initial energy and exergy. 2. There is no fuel expenditure.
The results stated that two-glass collector is more
efficient then the single –glass at the same times 3. There is no corrosion and leakage when
triangular fin is more efficient then rectangular fin compared with water heating system.
(Bahrehmand and Ameri, 2015). 4. The green house effect system has zero gas
Hussain H Al-Kayiem et al. had conducted the emission.
experiment on convectional flat plate type solar heater 5. To export drying agricultural products etc.
hold with rectangular duct. The size of the rectangular
was 0.48 m width, 0.07 depth and 2 m length. The Some of the disadvantages are as follows:
AP was made up of 1 mm gauge of aluminium. The 1. These systems have the low thermal
performance of the AP was measured by tilting the coefficient when compared to water heating system.
absorber plate at angle of 30°, 50°and 70°. From the If low thermal coefficient leads to low thermal
investigation it showed that inclined angle 50° had efficiency of flat plat type air solar heater.
most heat transfer rate and Nusselt number (Al-
Kayiem and Tadahmun, 2015). Bahrechmand et al. 2. To rectify these problem to modified
deployed a mathematical model for single and two configurations and designs of the solar air heater
glass cover with solar type air collector systems have been proposed. To rectify these problem to
with external forced convection flow. In this model, modified configurations and designs of the solar air
good agreement to analysis for solved and derived heater have been proposed. The experimental setup
the energy equation (Bahrehmand, 2015). Ravi Kant installed at Kotturpuram is a district of Chennai
Ravin et al. analysed to reduce losses of the heat and in Tamil Nadu, India (13°02’ (latitude) North and
improves the efficiency of double pass conventional 80°53’ (longitude).
1158 KUMAR ET AL..
EXPERIMENTAL SETUP and where the data are collected from the collector.
Solar air heaters may be classified into two parts. The Efficiency of Collector Calculation
The first part is based on the air channel flow From Hematianet al., 2012 and (Kurt bash and
configuration and the second part is related to the Durmush, 2004) stated that the thermal efficiency of
air channel design. The objective of the experiment the SFPTAC is the ratio useful heat gain by the air to
to increase the efficiency by choosing single flow incident solar radiation on the absorber plate.
single pass air channel configuration as a first part,
and second part is based on the flat plate absorber.
Puseful (1)
ηcollect= ×100 in %
The experimental setup consists of transparent glass P
wool, AP, and blower, glass wool insulation, drying
Puseful = mcp (T2-T1) in W (2)
chamber, temperature sensor, concave chamber and
chimney as shown in Fig. 1. The size of the SFPTAC P = Iβ × Ac in W (3)
is 2 × 1 × 0.10 m. The collector wall made of iron plate
with blue coated paint is with the thickness of 10 cm. m = ρ s V in Kg/sec
(4)
The glass wool is made of 25 mm thickness that has
good transparent and absorber property. Where Quseful is the useful heat gained by the solar air
collector (W) and Q is the solar incident radiation
The AP is made of 5 mm thickness aluminium with
absorbed by AP (W). m is the mass rate of air flow
black coating. To decrease the loss of heat from the
through the collector (Kg/s), CP is at constant pressure
AP by below with hold black coated insulated sheet
specific heat in (J/Kg°K). T1, T2 are inlet temperature
at thickness 25 mm. Air is gradually flow through
of inside and outlet temperature of collector tray. Iβ is
the AP upper hand over the surface in between the
the solar intensity Radiation which was measured by
gap thickness 50 mm. To observe the value of air
solar meter with accuracy ± 10 W/m2 and resolution
temperature by one is placed in front of absorber
0.1 W/m2. AC is the area of the solar collector and V
plate and other sensor is placed into drying chamber.
is the velocity of the air at outlet of collector tray is
The drying chamber is made of four cross section
measured by a speed meter type with precision of 0.1
as shown in Fig. 2. In each section to cover with
m/s. ρ is the density of the air in Kg/m3and S is the
aluminium sheet because of the sheet maintained
area of drying chamber in m2.
the temperature for long time. The tests were carried
out for one week (from 20 to 26 February 2017 and Natural Convection
local time 8.00 am to 6.00 pm) in each and every These analyses methods without any external device
one hour temperature readings had been taken. The evaluate the collector efficiency. The test is carried
readings had taken for both natural as well as forced out in different days and the average values of
convection. To conduct the experiment during the solar collector were taken. The air conventionally is
period, almost atmospheric conditions were uniform passing through the AP of the collector and leaves at

Fig. 1 Flat plate solar air collector; Pre-heating chamber.

 THE PERFORMANCE STUDY OF A SOLAR FLAT PLATE TYPE AIR COLLECTOR WITH
NATURAL AND FORCED CONVECTION 1159

insulated the collector tray. To measure the AP inlet

as well as outlet temperature of collector tray was
recorded at every one hour.
The value of the useful power output of the collector
in equation 2 is obtained by to measuring the air mass
flow rate (m), Constant pressure specific heat capacity
of the air (CP) is taken from the thermodynamic
steam table and the temperature difference between
inlet and outlet (ΔT). The mass flow rate of the air
is obtained in equation 4 measuring the air density,
surface area (S) and velocity of air density (V). The
power output of the collector is obtained by using
the equation 3 by measuring the solar radiation of
air per square meter (β) and collector Area (AC). The Fig. 3 The different temperature of the average values in
efficiency of the collector in equation 1 is obtained natural convection during the period
by the ratio of the useful power output and power
output.
According to Fig. 2, in the middle of the day at
a time of 1-2 pm the collector efficiency is more
occurred in natural convection because of maximum
air temperature difference between the inlet and
outlet of collector and also the higher rate of mass
flow. At the same time., end of the day the collector
efficiency will be decrease spontaneously. In Fig. 3,
the maximum temperature difference occurred at the
middle of the day at time 12-1 pm at the higher rate
of mass flow and spontaneously the temperature is
decreased from 2-3 pm. In Fig. 4, the collector efficiency
gradually increased up to maximum at time 1-2 pm Fig. 4 The collector efficiency vs. various mass flow rates
of the average value in natural convection during the
and spontaneously decreased from 2-3 pm. period.
Forced Convection
of solar collector were taken. The air sucked by the
In this method, the designed blower is located on blower is passing through the absorber plate of the
between the outlet of the collector or in front of the collector and leaves at insulated the collector tray. To
concave chamber. The specifications of the blower measure the absorber plate inlet temperature as well
had 15V, 1 amps and 8 W respectively. The test is as outlet temperature of collector tray was recorded
carried out on different days; the average values at every one hour.
To determine the collector efficiency should be
follow the same procedure for natural convection.
From the results showed that the collector efficiency
of forced convection is lower than the natural
convection because of to sudden changes cloudy
and weather condition which affect the inlet and
outlet temperature which case to decrease inlet and
outlet temperature of the collector. By decreasing
the outlet temperature, the speed of outlet air and
spontaneously reduced the air flow rate and as a
result the collector efficiency decreased. At time 1-2
pm, the mass flow rate of air in forced convection
is 25% higher than the natural convection. It can be
very useful for drying juicy fruits slices. This case
Fig. 2 The collector efficiency of the average values in can be useful in the solar dryer for drying juicy fruits
natural convection during the period. slices.
1160 KUMAR ET AL..
According to Fig. 5, in the middle of the day at
a time of 1-2 pm the collector efficiency is more
occurred in forced convection because of maximum
air temperature difference between the inlet and
outlet of collector and also the higher rate of mass
flow. At the same time., end of the day the collector
efficiency will be decrease spontaneously. In Fig. 6,
the maximum temperature difference occurred at the
middle of the day at time 12-1 pm at the higher rate
of mass flow and spontaneously the temperature is
decreased from 2-3 pm. In Fig. 7, the collector efficiency
gradually increased up to maximum at time 1-2 pm
and spontaneously decreased from 2-3 pm.
In Fig. 8, it showed that, the collector efficiency of the
natural convection is more than forced convection.
Fig. 7 The collector efficiency vs. various mass flow rates
At time 1-2 pm, the collector efficiency of the natural of the average value in forced convection during the
convection is 18.6% is more than forced convection period.
because of its heat loss is high due to the large
temperature difference between inside and outside
of the collector. In order to increase the collector
efficiency of the forced convection by increased

Fig. 8 To compare the collector efficiency of the average

values in natural as well as forced convection during the
period.

Fig. 5 The collector efficiency of the average values in the absorber surface area and also could cause the
forced convection during the period. output air warm faster (Fig. 9).
CONCLUSION
From the above experiment, the designed and
development of a flat plate solar air collector has
been studied in both natural and forced convection
and it has been found that the collector efficiency
in natural convection gave high efficiency when
compared to collector with the forced convection.
However, the heat loss in the forced convection is
considerably lower than the natural convection.
Furthermore, the results showed that the average air
speed in the forced convection was about 25% higher
than the natural convection which is important in
solar dryers. At a mid-time, the collector efficiency
of natural convection is 18.6% times more than the
Fig. 6 The different temperature of the average values in collector efficiency of forced convection.
forced convection during the period.
 THE PERFORMANCE STUDY OF A SOLAR FLAT PLATE TYPE AIR COLLECTOR WITH
NATURAL AND FORCED CONVECTION 1161

absorber plate with absorber plate having

concavities. International Journal of Research in
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Ljiljana, T., Kosti, C., Zoran, T. and Pavlovi, C. (2012).
Optimal position of flat plate reflectors of solar
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Fig. 9 To compare the gain temperature of the average
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period. with fins and baffles attached over the absorber
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