CFD Analysis on the Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow of Solar Air Heater having Transverse Triangular Block at the Bottom of Air Duct

In this study, a two-dimensional CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis was performed to investigate the heat-transfer and fluid-friction characteristics in a solar air heater having a transverse triangular block at the bottom of the air duct. The Reynolds number, block height (e), pitch (P), and length (l) were chosen as design parameters. The results are validated by comparing the Nusselt number predicted by simulation with available experimental results. Renormalization-group (RNG) k - ε model with enhanced wall-treatment was selected as the most appropriate turbulence model. From the results, it was found that the presence of a transverse triangular block produces a higher Nusselt number than that of smooth air duct. The enhancement in Nusselt number varied from 1.19 to 3.37, according to the geometric conditions investigated. However, the use of transverse triangular block also results in significantly higher friction losses. The thermohydraulic performance (THPP) was also estimated and has a maximum value of 1.001 for height (e) of 20 mm, length (l) of 120 mm, and pitch (P) of 150 mm, at Reynolds number of 8000. Furthermore, in the present study, correlations of the Nusselt number and friction factor were developed as a function of geometrical conditions of the transverse triangular block and Reynolds number, which can be used to predict the value of Nusselt number and friction factor with the absolute percentage deviations of 3.29% and 7.92%, respectively.