IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v15y2022i8p2800-d791406.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Descriptive Review to Access the Most Suitable Rib’s Configuration of Roughness for the Maximum Performance of Solar Air Heater

Author

Listed:
  • Karmveer

    (Department of Mechanical Engineering, GLA University, Mathura 281406, Uttar Pradesh, India)

  • Naveen Kumar Gupta

    (Department of Mechanical Engineering, GLA University, Mathura 281406, Uttar Pradesh, India)

  • Tabish Alam

    (CSIR—Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee 247667, Uttarakhand, India)

  • Raffaello Cozzolino

    (Department of Engineering, University of Rome Niccolò Cusano, 00166 Roma, Italy)

  • Gino Bella

    (Department of Engineering, University of Rome Niccolò Cusano, 00166 Roma, Italy)

Abstract

Solar air heater is considered to be the most popular and widely used solar thermal system. Solar air heater (SAH) can be used in many applications, ranging from domestic to industrial purposes. However, it seems that the viability of SAH is not feasible due to the following two reasons: (i) the low convective heat transfer coefficient at the absorber plate is the reason that causes a low heat transfer rate to the flowing air, and (ii) the high temperature of the absorber plate insists on high heat losses, thus, reducing the thermal efficiency. The convective coefficient can be augmented by placing turbulators/roughness on the absorber plate, which induces turbulence in the flow passage near the absorber plate by disrupting and destabilizing the laminar sublayer. This comprehensive review has been presented to summarize the studies on artificial roughness/turbulators geometries to enhance the heat transfer rate. Various rib configurations (such as grits, grooves, blockages, baffles, winglets, protrusions, twisted taps, dimples, and mesh wires) and distinct arrangements of rib roughness (such as inclined, transverse, V shape, with gap) have been reviewed to present heat transfer and friction characteristics. Additionally, thermal efficiency and thermohydraulic efficiency (in terms of net effective efficiency) of various artificial roughnesses and rib configurations are presented under distinct operating conditions for comparing purposes. This comparative study has been presented to assess the most desirable ribs and their configurations. On the basis of net effective efficiency, a multiarc rib with gaps is found to be the best configuration among all and have the highest thermal and net effective efficiency of around 79%.

Suggested Citation

  • Karmveer & Naveen Kumar Gupta & Tabish Alam & Raffaello Cozzolino & Gino Bella, 2022. "A Descriptive Review to Access the Most Suitable Rib’s Configuration of Roughness for the Maximum Performance of Solar Air Heater," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-46, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:8:p:2800-:d:791406
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/8/2800/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/8/2800/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alam, Tabish & Kim, Man-Hoe, 2016. "Numerical study on thermal hydraulic performance improvement in solar air heater duct with semi ellipse shaped obstacles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 588-598.
    2. Sahu, Mukesh Kumar & Prasad, Radha Krishna, 2016. "Exergy based performance evaluation of solar air heater with arc-shaped wire roughened absorber plate," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA), pages 233-243.
    3. Dong, Zhimin & Liu, Peng & Xiao, Hui & Liu, Zhichun & Liu, Wei, 2021. "A study on heat transfer enhancement for solar air heaters with ripple surface," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 477-487.
    4. Singh, Sukhmeet & Chander, Subhash & Saini, J.S., 2015. "Thermo-hydraulic performance due to relative roughness pitch in V-down rib with gap in solar air heater duct—Comparison with similar rib roughness geometries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1159-1166.
    5. Varun Kumar, B. & Manikandan, G. & Rajesh Kanna, P., 2021. "Enhancement of heat transfer in SAH with polygonal and trapezoidal shape of the rib using CFD," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    6. Luo, Lei & Wen, Fengbo & Wang, Lei & Sundén, Bengt & Wang, Songtao, 2016. "Thermal enhancement by using grooves and ribs combined with delta-winglet vortex generator in a solar receiver heat exchanger," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1317-1332.
    7. Tabish Alam & Chandan Swaroop Meena & Nagesh Babu Balam & Ashok Kumar & Raffaello Cozzolino, 2021. "Thermo-Hydraulic Performance Characteristics and Optimization of Protrusion Rib Roughness in Solar Air Heater," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-19, May.
    8. Singh, Inderjeet & Singh, Sukhmeet, 2018. "A review of artificial roughness geometries employed in solar air heaters," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 405-425.
    9. Singh, Sukhmeet & Chander, Subhash & Saini, J.S., 2011. "Heat transfer and friction factor correlations of solar air heater ducts artificially roughened with discrete V-down ribs," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 5053-5064.
    10. Kumar, Rajneesh & Goel, Varun, 2021. "Unconventional solar air heater with triangular flow-passage: A CFD based comparative performance assessment of different cross-sectional rib-roughnesses," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 1267-1278.
    11. Patil, Anil Kumar, 2015. "Heat transfer mechanism and energy efficiency of artificially roughened solar air heaters—A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 681-689.
    12. Kumar, Vikash & Murmu, Ramesh, 2021. "Experimental investigation for thermal performance of inclined spherical ball roughened solar air duct," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 1365-1392.
    13. Aharwal, K.R. & Gandhi, B.K. & Saini, J.S., 2008. "Experimental investigation on heat-transfer enhancement due to a gap in an inclined continuous rib arrangement in a rectangular duct of solar air heater," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 585-596.
    14. Lanjewar, Atul & Bhagoria, J.L. & Sarviya, R.M., 2011. "Heat transfer and friction in solar air heater duct with W-shaped rib roughness on absorber plate," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 4531-4541.
    15. Karim, M.A. & Perez, E. & Amin, Z.M., 2014. "Mathematical modelling of counter flow v-grove solar air collector," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 192-201.
    16. Kumar, Anil & Kim, Man-Hoe, 2016. "Heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics in air duct with various V-pattern rib roughness on the heated plate: A comparative study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 75-85.
    17. Hassan, Ahmad Kamal & Muzaffarul Hasan, M. & Emran Khan, Mohammad, 2021. "Parametric investigation and correlation development for heat transfer and friction factor in multiple arc dimple roughened solar air duct," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 403-425.
    18. Kumar, Anil & Saini, R.P. & Saini, J.S., 2013. "Development of correlations for Nusselt number and friction factor for solar air heater with roughened duct having multi v-shaped with gap rib as artificial roughness," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 151-163.
    19. Alam, Tabish & Kim, Man-Hoe, 2018. "A comprehensive review on single phase heat transfer enhancement techniques in heat exchanger applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 813-839.
    20. Jain, Piyush Kumar & Lanjewar, Atul, 2019. "Overview of V-RIB geometries in solar air heater and performance evaluation of a new V-RIB geometry," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 77-90.
    21. Karwa, Rajendra & Solanki, S.C & Saini, J.S, 2001. "Thermo-hydraulic performance of solar air heaters having integral chamfered rib roughness on absorber plates," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 161-176.
    22. Jin, Dongxu & Zuo, Jianguo & Quan, Shenglin & Xu, Shiming & Gao, Hao, 2017. "Thermohydraulic performance of solar air heater with staggered multiple V-shaped ribs on the absorber plate," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 68-77.
    23. Singh, Sukhmeet & Chander, Subhash & Saini, J.S., 2012. "Investigations on thermo-hydraulic performance due to flow-attack-angle in V-down rib with gap in a rectangular duct of solar air heater," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 907-912.
    24. Verma, S.K & Prasad, B.N, 2000. "Investigation for the optimal thermohydraulic performance of artificially roughened solar air heaters," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 19-36.
    25. Kumar, Anup & Layek, Apurba, 2019. "Nusselt number and friction factor correlation of solar air heater having twisted-rib roughness on absorber plate," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 687-699.
    26. Alam, Tabish & Saini, R.P. & Saini, J.S., 2014. "Use of turbulators for heat transfer augmentation in an air duct – A review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 689-715.
    27. Singh, Sukhmeet & Singh, Bikramjit & Hans, V.S. & Gill, R.S., 2015. "CFD (computational fluid dynamics) investigation on Nusselt number and friction factor of solar air heater duct roughened with non-uniform cross-section transverse rib," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 509-517.
    28. Alam, Tabish & Kim, Man-Hoe, 2017. "A critical review on artificial roughness provided in rectangular solar air heater duct," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 387-400.
    29. Cortés, A. & Piacentini, R., 1990. "Improvement of the efficiency of a bare solar collector by means of turbulence promoters," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 253-261.
    30. Jin, Dongxu & Zhang, Manman & Wang, Ping & Xu, Shasha, 2015. "Numerical investigation of heat transfer and fluid flow in a solar air heater duct with multi V-shaped ribs on the absorber plate," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 178-190.
    31. Saini, R.P. & Verma, Jitendra, 2008. "Heat transfer and friction factor correlations for a duct having dimple-shape artificial roughness for solar air heaters," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1277-1287.
    32. Deo, Narinderpal Singh & Chander, Subhash & Saini, J.S., 2016. "Performance analysis of solar air heater duct roughened with multigap V-down ribs combined with staggered ribs," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 484-500.
    33. 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.
    34. Singh Bisht, Vijay & Kumar Patil, Anil & Gupta, Anirudh, 2018. "Review and performance evaluation of roughened solar air heaters," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 954-977.
    35. Manjunath, M.S. & Karanth, K.Vasudeva & Sharma, N.Yagnesh, 2017. "Numerical analysis of the influence of spherical turbulence generators on heat transfer enhancement of flat plate solar air heater," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 616-630.
    36. Prasad, K. & Mullick, S. C., 1983. "Heat transfer characteristics of a solar air heater used for drying purposes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 83-93, February.
    37. Goel, Varun & Kumar, Rajneesh & Bhattacharyya, Suvanjan & Tyagi, V.V. & Abusorrah, Abdullah M., 2021. "A comprehensive parametric investigation of hemispherical cavities on thermal performance and flow-dynamics in the triangular-duct solar-assisted air-heater," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 896-912.
    38. Farhan, Ammar A. & Issam M.Ali, Aljubury & Ahmed, Hamdi E., 2021. "Energetic and exergetic efficiency analysis of a v-corrugated solar air heater integrated with twisted tape inserts," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 1373-1385.
    39. Bhagoria, J.L & Saini, J.S & Solanki, S.C, 2002. "Heat transfer coefficient and friction factor correlations for rectangular solar air heater duct having transverse wedge shaped rib roughness on the absorber plate," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 341-369.
    40. Nidhul, Kottayat & Kumar, Sachin & Yadav, Ajay Kumar & Anish, S., 2020. "Enhanced thermo-hydraulic performance in a V-ribbed triangular duct solar air heater: CFD and exergy analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nidhul, Kottayat & Yadav, Ajay Kumar & Anish, S. & Kumar, Sachin, 2021. "Critical review of ribbed solar air heater and performance evaluation of various V-rib configuration," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    2. Nidhul, Kottayat & Kumar, Sachin & Yadav, Ajay Kumar & Anish, S., 2020. "Enhanced thermo-hydraulic performance in a V-ribbed triangular duct solar air heater: CFD and exergy analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    3. Alam, Tabish & Kim, Man-Hoe, 2017. "A critical review on artificial roughness provided in rectangular solar air heater duct," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 387-400.
    4. Singh Yadav, Anil & Kumar Thapak, Manish, 2014. "Artificially roughened solar air heater: Experimental investigations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 370-411.
    5. Nidhul, Kottayat & Yadav, Ajay Kumar & Anish, S. & Arunachala, U.C., 2022. "Thermo-hydraulic and exergetic performance of a cost-effective solar air heater: CFD and experimental study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 627-641.
    6. Singh Bisht, Vijay & Kumar Patil, Anil & Gupta, Anirudh, 2018. "Review and performance evaluation of roughened solar air heaters," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 954-977.
    7. Varun Pratap Singh & Siddharth Jain & Ashish Karn & Ashwani Kumar & Gaurav Dwivedi & Chandan Swaroop Meena & Nitesh Dutt & Aritra Ghosh, 2022. "Recent Developments and Advancements in Solar Air Heaters: A Detailed Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-55, September.
    8. Sharma, Sanjay K. & Kalamkar, Vilas R., 2015. "Thermo-hydraulic performance analysis of solar air heaters having artificial roughness–A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 413-435.
    9. Sahu, Mukesh Kumar & Prasad, Radha Krishna, 2017. "Thermohydraulic performance analysis of an arc shape wire roughened solar air heater," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 598-614.
    10. Al-Zahrani, Salman, 2023. "Thermal performance augmentation of solar air heater with curved path," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    11. Varun Kumar, B. & Manikandan, G. & Rajesh Kanna, P., 2021. "Enhancement of heat transfer in SAH with polygonal and trapezoidal shape of the rib using CFD," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    12. Kumar, Anil & Kim, Man-Hoe, 2016. "Thermohydraulic performance of rectangular ducts with different multiple V-rib roughness shapes: A comprehensive review and comparative study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 635-652.
    13. Saxena, Abhishek & Varun, & El-Sebaii, A.A., 2015. "A thermodynamic review of solar air heaters," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 863-890.
    14. Gawande, Vipin B. & Dhoble, A.S. & Zodpe, D.B., 2014. "Effect of roughness geometries on heat transfer enhancement in solar thermal systems – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 347-378.
    15. Lanjewar, A.M. & Bhagoria, J.L. & Agrawal, M.K., 2015. "Review of development of artificial roughness in solar air heater and performance evaluation of different orientations for double arc rib roughness," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1214-1223.
    16. Patil, Anil Kumar, 2015. "Heat transfer mechanism and energy efficiency of artificially roughened solar air heaters—A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 681-689.
    17. Alam, Tabish & Saini, R.P. & Saini, J.S., 2014. "Use of turbulators for heat transfer augmentation in an air duct – A review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 689-715.
    18. Jin, Dongxu & Quan, Shenglin & Zuo, Jianguo & Xu, Shiming, 2019. "Numerical investigation of heat transfer enhancement in a solar air heater roughened by multiple V-shaped ribs," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 78-88.
    19. Yadav, Anil Singh & Bhagoria, J.L., 2013. "A CFD (computational fluid dynamics) based heat transfer and fluid flow analysis of a solar air heater provided with circular transverse wire rib roughness on the absorber plate," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1127-1142.
    20. Anil Singh Yadav & Tabish Alam & Gaurav Gupta & Rajiv Saxena & Naveen Kumar Gupta & K. Viswanath Allamraju & Rahul Kumar & Neeraj Sharma & Abhishek Sharma & Utkarsh Pandey & Yogesh Agrawal, 2022. "A Numerical Investigation of an Artificially Roughened Solar Air Heater," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-27, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:8:p:2800-:d:791406. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.