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Performance improvement of a flat-plate solar collector by inserting intermittent porous blocks

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  • Anirudh, K.
  • Dhinakaran, S.

Abstract

Numerical analysis of the thermal performance of a flat plate solar collector (FPSC) is presented. The FPSC is inserted with porous metal foam blocks intermittently for promoting thermal mixing. Based on the presence of blocks at the inlet and the outlet, four different arrangements are used namely NN, NP, PN and PP, wherein N means absent, and P means present. Also, four different cases based on the increasing number of porous blocks as per respective arrangement are considered viz., Case 1 with 1 or 2, Case 2 with 3 or 4, Case 3 with 5 or 6, and Case 4 with 7 or 8 porous blocks. Influence of height of porous blocks (S = 0–1), and permeability of the porous medium (Darcy number, Da = 10−4 - 10−1) on the collector outlet temperature, i.e. overall heating of the working fluid (Prandtl number, Pr = 7), has been studied. Numerical experiments are performed by modifying a generic code (SimpleFOAM) from the OpenFOAM® repository with the extended Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer model for realising porous medium. Results indicate that significant augmentation in heat transfer can be achieved by increasing the number of blocks due to improved thermal mixing. The increment was prominent for higher values of the height of porous blocks. However, the pressure drop penalty has to be spent in such cases. The performance of the FPSC channel improves when the number of porous blocks is minimal, along with lesser height. The value is higher even than the case of a channel filled with a continuous porous layer of varying thickness. Overall, a better performance evaluation criteria value is reported for the insertion of the porous block in comparison to both, empty and filled porous FPSC channel. Detailed insights are further provided on the inclusion of the Forchheimer term while modelling the porous medium. For lower values of permeability, wherein the porous resistances are higher in amplitude, the results vary significantly for Darcy-Brinkman model in comparison to Extended Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer model. The manuscript provides an impetus for further experimental work on the present case, and assists to explore the performance improvement in an FPSC channel by insertion of the porous medium.

Suggested Citation

  • Anirudh, K. & Dhinakaran, S., 2020. "Performance improvement of a flat-plate solar collector by inserting intermittent porous blocks," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 428-441.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:145:y:2020:i:c:p:428-441
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2019.06.015
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Rawal Diganjit & N. Gnanasekaran & Moghtada Mobedi, 2022. "Numerical Study for Enhancement of Heat Transfer Using Discrete Metal Foam with Varying Thickness and Porosity in Solar Air Heater by LTNE Method," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-28, November.
    2. Chen, Tianyu & Shu, Gequn & Tian, Hua & Zhao, Tingting & Zhang, Hongfei & Zhang, Zhao, 2020. "Performance evaluation of metal-foam baffle exhaust heat exchanger for waste heat recovery," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    3. Anirudh, K. & Dhinakaran, S., 2020. "Numerical study on performance improvement of a flat-plate solar collector filled with porous foam," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P1), pages 1704-1717.
    4. Natalia Rydalina & Elena Antonova & Irina Akhmetova & Svetlana Ilyashenko & Olga Afanaseva & Vincenzo Bianco & Alexander Fedyukhin, 2020. "Analysis of the Efficiency of Using Heat Exchangers with Porous Inserts in Heat and Gas Supply Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-13, November.
    5. Rawal Diganjit & Nagaranjan Gnanasekaran & Moghtada Mobedi, 2023. "Thermohydraulic Efficiency of a Solar Air Heater in the Presence of Graded Aluminium Wire Mesh—A Combined Experimental–Numerical Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-32, July.
    6. Jouybari, Nima Fallah & Lundström, T. Staffan, 2020. "Performance improvement of a solar air heater by covering the absorber plate with a thin porous material," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    7. Liu, Yan & Tan, Chenchen & Jin, Yingai & Ma, Shihong, 2022. "Heat collection performance analysis of corrugated flat plate collector: An experimental study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 1-9.
    8. Sharma, Harish Kumar & Kumar, Satish & Verma, Sujit Kumar, 2022. "Comparative performance analysis of flat plate solar collector having circular &trapezoidal corrugated absorber plate designs," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    9. Sheikholeslami, M. & Farshad, Seyyed Ali & Shafee, Ahmad & Babazadeh, Houman, 2021. "Performance of solar collector with turbulator involving nanomaterial turbulent regime," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 1222-1237.
    10. Fan, Yi & Zhao, Xudong & Han, Zhonghe & Li, Jing & Badiei, Ali & Akhlaghi, Yousef Golizadeh & Liu, Zhijian, 2021. "Scientific and technological progress and future perspectives of the solar assisted heat pump (SAHP) system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    11. Meng Liu & Shenghua Du & Qing Ai & Jiaming Gong & Yong Shuai, 2022. "Spectral Radiation Characteristic Measurements of Absorption and Scattering Semitransparent Materials—A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-28, November.
    12. Anirudh, K. & Dhinakaran, S., 2021. "Numerical analysis of the performance improvement of a flat-plate solar collector using conjugated porous blocks," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 382-391.
    13. Tabish Alam & Nagesh Babu Balam & Kishor Sitaram Kulkarni & Md Irfanul Haque Siddiqui & Nishant Raj Kapoor & Chandan Swaroop Meena & Ashok Kumar & Raffaello Cozzolino, 2021. "Performance Augmentation of the Flat Plate Solar Thermal Collector: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-23, September.
    14. Xinwei Lin & Yongfang Xia & Zude Cheng & Xianshuang Liu & Yingmei Fu & Lingyun Li & Wenqin Zhou, 2024. "Thermal Performance Analysis of Porous Foam-Assisted Flat-Plate Solar Collectors with Nanofluids," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-26, January.

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