Renewable Energy 29 (2004) 14891501

www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Eciency and exergy analysis of a new solar

air heater
Irfan Kurtbas
, Aydn Durmus
Firat University, Technical Education Faculty, Mechanical Education Department, 23119 Elazg, Turkey
Received 4 June 2003; accepted 18 January 2004

Abstract
It would be misleading to consider only the cost aspect of the design of a solar collector.
High service costs increase total costs during the service life of solar collector. The most
eective way to save energy is by increasing the eciency in a solar collector by the heat
transfer coecient.
In our study, ve solar collectors with dimensions of 0:9  0:4 m were used and the ow line
increased where it had narrowed and expanded geometrically in shape. These collectors were
set to four dierent cases with dimensions of 1  2 m. Therefore, heating uids exit the solar
collector after at least 4.5 m displacement. According to the collector geometry, turbulence
occurs in uid ow and in this way heat transfer is increased. The results of the experiments
were evaluated on the days with the same radiation. The eciencies of these four collectors
were compared to conventional at-plate collectors. It was seen that heat transfer and pressure
loss increased depending on shape and numbers of the absorbers.
# 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Air collector; Collector eciency; Exergy loss

1. Introduction
The eects of material and construction of the absorber on the eciency of the
collectors have been widely reported in the literature, but the inuences of ow line
of the uid on the eciency of the collectors have not been studied in detail.
Flat-plate collectors have an important place among applications of solar energy
system. The main part of at-plate collectors is black absorber surface. Because of

Corresponding author. Tel.: +90-424-2370000; fax: +90-424-2367064.

E-mail address: ikurtbas@rat.edu.tr (I_ . Kurtbas).

0960-1481/$ - see front matter # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2004.01.006

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Nomenclature
A
Ah
Cp
DH
E
ED
f
h
I
k
Nu
P
Q
Pr
R
Re
S
T
Tas
U
V
W
a
k
g
m

hTlog
q
l

collector surface area (m2)

channel cross-section area (m2)
specic heat (J/kg.K)
hydraulic diameter (m)
exergy (W)
dimensionless exergy loss ()
friction coecient ()
enthalpy (J/kg)
total solar radiation incident upon plate of the collector (W/m2)
adiabatic constant of the air (1,4) ()
Nusselt number ()
pressure (N/m2)
useful heat gain (W)
Prandtl number ()
universal gas constant (J/kg. K)
Reynolds number ()
entropy (J/kg.K)
temperature (K)
surface temperature of the absorber (K)
channel perimeter exposed to air (m)
average velocity of air (m/s)
work (J)
heat convection coecient (W/m2.K)
heat conduction coecient (W/m.K)
eciency of air collector ()
mass ow rate of air (kg/s)
logarithmic main temperature dierence (K)
density of air (kg/m3)
dynamic viscosity of air (Pas. s)

Subscripts
e
environment
i
inlet
o
outlet
max
maximum
min
minimum
R
radiation

this, several investigations were made on this subject in order to increase eciency
of the collector and outlet temperature of uid. The aim of these investigations is

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1491

to develop a more ecient absorber, to increase the amount of energy obtained, to

decrease the cost of energy provided from sun, to store the energy and to use it
continuously.
Flat-plate collectors are classied into two groups according to uid used. Water
is usually used in liquid collectors and air, in gas collectors. Since the air has worse
thermodynamic properties in terms of heat transfer compared to liquid, the
eciency of air collectors is naturally of low value. Because of this, several types of
solar air heaters have been proposed over the recent years in order to improve their
performance. They are generally used for heating in conditioning and drying of
agriculture situations.
A modied solar air heater, which incorporated aluminum wool on a perforated
plate placed diagonally on the passageway of the air to serve as a front absorbing
medium above the absorber plate was designed, conducted and tested [1]. The
eciency of the air solar collector increased up to ve-fold compared to the atsurface collectors by using materials to increase the absorption surface area.
Rectangular staggered ns are soldered on the collectors back [2]. The interstices
are inserted between two consecutive ns located in the same row. A turbulent
uid ow is developed which permits the improvement of the thermal heat transfer
of these collectors in comparison to the at-plate. For the same n congurations,
the thermal heat transfer coecient was evaluated with a selective or non-selective
absorber-plate. It was seen that the nature of the absorber plate (selective or nonselective) had no signicant eect on the heat transfer and Nusselt number in
nned system collectors. In addition, there were no dierences in friction factors. It
is only necessary to reduce the spacing between consecutive n rows in order to
increase the heat transfer. A collector was designed in order to overcome the physical problems of conventional at-plate air collectors as well as the particular technical problems of matrix air collectors [3]. The absorber of the collector consist of
two parallel sheets of black oxidized or black galvanized industrial woven,
ne-meshed wire screens which are made of copper. In this study, the following
results are obtained; the thermal performance of the collector improved with
increasing mass ow rates due to an enhanced heat transfer to the air stream.
There was little eect on its overall thermal eciency at low mass ow rates
(10 g/s). The novel matrix air collector yielded an improved thermal performance
with higher heat transfer rates to the airow and smaller friction losses compared
to at-plate air collectors of conventional design. The surface of air collectors having V-corrugation surface, n and at-plate were designed. This surfaces were covered with material of black copper-oxide having 0.15 emit coecient and 0.9
absorber coecient [4]. In this study, the eciency of the collectors was investigated by performing the experiments with dierent mass ow rate. It was seen that
particular V-corrugation collector had both high thermal eciency of collector and
high loss of pressure. The eciency of the collector was investigated by placing
parallel obstructions to the ow area in the at-plate air collector [5]. The eciency
of the collector increased with increasing numbers of n. The experimental results
were compared with the theoretical results. The optimization was also conducted

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for dierent intervals. It was seen that the optimum location of ns was in the middle of the collector.
In this study, an absorber having ve slices in a collector case was designed to
investigate the eect of the ow line of the uid on the performance of solar collectors. This absorber slices have (0:9  0:4 m) dimensions, four dierent surface
geometries, single passage, and narrowed-extended shape. In this way, the heat
transfer was increased by being extended along the ow line of uid (air) and changing velocity and pressure in narrowed-extended area in which swirl and secondary
ows form. As known, swirl and secondary ows cause the convection coecient
of the heat transfer to increase.

2. Experimental set up
The experimental set up of the solar air collector is schematized as shown in
Fig. 1. Although, the collectors designed are composed of basically the same
elements present in the conventional at-plate solar air collectors, it has special
constructions due to the front absorption surface.
The absorbers were formed by a black-painted galvanized sheet with 0.8 mm
thick. Type IV of the absorber is at-plate with 25 mm gap between parallel plates.
The air ow is provided as seen Fig. 1ad. Type III is the onduline prole plate. In
this type, the gap between plates is kept as 25 mm along the plates. The bottom
surface of type II is at prole and the upper surface is onduline prole. In the
type I, the air to be heated leaves the absorber by passing from narrowed-extended
gap. The narrowest gap is 25 mm and the widest gap is 180 mm of the absorber.

Fig. 1. Experimental set-up.

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1493

The sides of the air duct in the absorber were welded by soldering after the
galvanized sheet had been covered. Besides, the area welded was covered by joint
seal in order to prevent heat leaking. Five slices were placed in the collector cases
with 1  2 m dimensions. The collector material of the cases was chosen from a
galvanized sheet 0.4 mm thick. A single glazing was chosen in order to maximize
the radiation impact on the absorber surface and to reduce costs. To minimize the
heat losses from the sides and from the bottom of the collector were insulated by
glass wool, which has low heat conductive coecient (k 0:038 W=m:K).
The air was provided by a radial fan with a maximum 0.31 m3/s mass ow rates.
The radial fan placed at the outlet of the collectors sucked in the air. If the radial
fan was placed at the inlet of collectors, the turbulence could have occurred
because of blowing. However, sucking of the air prevented this condition. The
pressure loss was measured by means of a water U-manometer placed between
entrance and the exit and the velocity of the air was measured at the inlet of the
collector.

3. Analysis of exergy
Exergy is the amount of maximum work obtained theoretically at the end of
a reversible process in which equilibrium with environment should be obtained.
According to this denition, in order to calculate exergy, the environment
conditions should be known [6].
Exergy balance in a steady state open system can be written as follows
X
X
X
Ei 
Eo
Eproduct 0
1
The lost work as being described between dierences of maximum work with real
work
Wlost Wmax  Wreal E

This expression is equal to exergy loss. Therefore, exergy loss in the open systems;

X :
X :
X 
Te
E
mi hi  Te Se 
mo ho  Te So
Q 1
W
3
Ts
Eq. (3) gives the balance of exergy in the collector. If it is assumed that the collector has a single entrance and exit and the air is ideal uid and also the conditions
are at steady state [7], for Eq. (3)
:

E mei  eo ER

can be written. Here,

e i hi  T e S i  he  T e S e

eo ho  Te So  he  Te Se

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1494

and inserting these into Eq. (4)

:

E mhi  ho  Te So  Si I:A:1  Te =Ts

for changing of enthalpy and entropy

Dh Cp DT

DS Cp :lnTo =Ti  R:lnPo =Pi

If Eqs. (8) and (9) are inserted into Eq. (7)

:

E m:Cp :DT  m:Cp :Te :lnTo =Ti  m:R:Te :lnPo =Pi I:A:1  Te =Ts

10

is obtained.
E Te
To =Ti
:ln
ED
k1
Q DT
Po =Pi k



1
Te
1
1
g
Ts

11

the equation of dimensionless exergy is obtained.

The eciency of solar heating systems extensively depends on the eciency of
the collectors. Test methods based on incident measures are applied to the whole
collector throughout both liquid and gas ows. In this method, mass ow rate of
the uid, the temperature of the collector inlet and outlet and the radiation intensity are measured simultaneously [7].
Thermal collector eciency is dened as the ratio of useful energy and the
incident solar radiation.
g

Q
I:A

12

The useful energy Q used in the calculation of collector eciency can be estimated
by using following equation
:

Q m:Cp :To  Ti

13

Air collectors (at-plate solar air heaters) are adiabatic radiative heat exchangers,
transferring solar radiant energy into heat, which is transferred by convection from
the absorber to the working uid (air) [1]. According to this denition, heat transfer obtained can be given in terms of Nusselt number.
Nu

a:DH
k

14

where DH is the hydraulic diameter and evaluated as

DH

4:Ah
U

15

Ah is the channel cross-section area, U is the channel perimeter exposed to air, a

and k are the coecients of convective heat transfer and of conductive heat transfer of air, respectively.

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For the coecient of convective heat transfer

Q a:A:DTlog

16

where DTlog is the logarithmic main temperature dierence between temperature of

absorber surface and air temperature. If Eq. (16) is equalized to Eq. (13), the coefcient of convective heat transfer can be calculated.
Then the Reynolds number, which depends strongly on the velocity of air, has
been written as
Re

q:V :DH
l

17

The velocity (V) of the air was measured at the collector entrance; the continuity
equation permits us to obtain the velocity in any frontal section of collector duct.
:

m q:Ah :V

18

Dynamics viscosity, density of air and specic heat of air are determined according
to average air temperature between entrance and exist of the collector.

4. Methods and measurements

The experiments were conducted on the days of June, July and August in Elazg
v
in Turkey. The collectors were located with 37 angles towards the south.
The experiments were carried out at the same time periods between 9.00 and
17.00 of the days for a variety of mass ow rates. The air ow through the collector was supplied by a radial fan and adjusted via a sliding valve located at the air
inlet. The ow rate was kept constant and same in both the collector designed and
conventional at-plate collector.
The experiments were carried out using ve dierent mass ow rates and the
sliding valve at the radial fan changed these rates. The velocity of the air was measured by wind rose. The collectors were tested according to the ASHARE 93-97
standard [8].
The incident solar radiation was measured with a Kipp and Zonen piranometer.
Copper-Constantan thermocouples were placed at the four points in the collector,
as well as at the inlet and outlet ports of the air to measure by a multi-channel
digital micro voltmeter for 60-min periods. The information about the relative
humidity of the air and wind speed during the experiments were kindly supplied by
meteorology department in Elazg.
In this study, errors came from sensitiveness of equipment and measurements.
First; errors due to measurement of temperature; are sensitiveness of voltmeter is
v
about 0.1% C, measurement error is 0.2% and sensitiveness of the thermov
couple is 0.1% C. The sensitiveness was obtained from a catalog of the instruments. The second came from the measurement of ow rate. The sensitiveness of
the ow meter is about 0.1% and error due to measurement is about 0.1%. In
total, errors for measurement of ow rate are about 0.2%. The empirical relations

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Table 1
Empirical correlations obtained from results of experiment
Nusselt number (Nu)
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 4
Flat-plate
Theoretical

0.168

11.353 Re
28.889 Re0.199
37.244 Re0.243
43.901 Re0.228
8.917 Re0.168
0.0158 Re0.8

Friction coecient (f)

0.612

0.122 Re
0.154 Re0.719
0.188 Re0.774
0.221 Re0.724
0.075 R0.636
(0.79 ln Re 1.64)2

Dimensionless exergy loss (ED)

933.29 Re0.634
285.63 Re0.541
178.34 Re0.516
163.59 Re0.516
1364.1 Re0.624

which are shown in Table 1 are constructed by the least square method. The
maximum errors caused by the assumptions and sensitivity in measurement were
found to 8%, 10% and 7% for the Nusselt number, friction coecient (f) and
dimensionless exergy loss, respectively.
The empirical formulas given above are valid for Reynolds number in the range
of 2600 and 6500.

5. Results and discussion

In this study, the aim was to increase collector eciency using passive method in
air collectors. When a comparison was made between collectors the days having
approximately the same radiation were used. The results obtained from the collectors designed are depicted in Fig. 2. Moreover, the eciency in each collector is
also given in the same gures in terms of mass ow rates. Increasing the mass ow
rates resulted in 1.5- to 3.5-fold increase in each collector eciency. However, the
outlet temperature of air signicantly changes with the geometry of the absorber.
As known, the incident solar radiation is one of the most important parameters in
v
the collector eciency. The temperature of absorber surfaces increased up to 86 C
depending on the incident solar radiation. In addition, the outlet temperature of air
v
v
increased 78.5 C in the lowest mass ow rate (0.012 kg/s), and 67 C in the highest mass ow rate (0.028 kg/s). This behavior may be explained by longer constant
times of air with the hot surfaces inside the collector. As seen from the results, the
collector eciency increased with increasing mass ow rate of uid. When the
radiation is maximum, collector eciency is also maximum. The radiation values
change in the range of 880 W/m2 and 480 W/m2 and it reaches the maximum in
the midday.
According to Fig. 2, maximum eciency in type 1 is 29.2%, 44.3% in type 2,
60.4% in type 3, 67% in type 4 and 16% in the conventional at-plate collector. It
was revealed from Fig. 1, that the eect of absorber construction on the collector
eciency is fairly important.
The eciency for mass ow rate 0.028 kg/s is given in Fig. 3 according to day
times. The eciency of at-plate collector changed between 9% and 15%. In type 1,
the eciency of collector increased up to 29% at midday by extending the ow line

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1497

Fig. 2. (a) For type 1, the collector eciency as a function of day times for ve mass ow rates. (b) For
type 2, the collector eciency as a function of day times for ve mass ow rates. (c) For type 3, the
collector eciency as a function of day times for ve mass ow rates. (d) For type 4, the collector
eciency as a function of day times for ve mass ow rates.

without changing surface geometry. Extending the ow line two-fold apparently

increased the collector eciency almost twice as much. In type 3, the extending of
ow line of the air as well as staggering of the ow line because of the onduline
prole, the collector eciency increased approximately three times compared to the
at-plate collector at a level of 44%. In types 3 and 4, the surfaces geometry
increased the collector eciency by 4.5-fold as shown in Fig. 3. By changing the
ow area at both upper and lower surfaces, the eciency increased 12% compared
to changing the upper surface.
The eect of extending the ow line and the surface geometry on the heat transfer are clearly depicted in Fig. 4. In this gure, the changing of Nusselt number
with Reynolds number is given. The heat gained is proportional to collector
eciency as given in Eq. (12). As is known, the same parameters such as ambient
air temperature, collector overall heat loss coecient and collector eciency factor
are critical parameters for collector eciency. Therefore, the comparison of the

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I_. Kurtbas, A. Durmus / Renewable Energy 29 (2004) 14891501

Fig. 3. Change of collector eciency with day times for each absorber in m
=0.028 kg/s.

heat transfer between both collectors and correlations would be more practical.
For full developed turbulent ow of air between two plates with one side heated
and the other side insulated, the correlation was given by Kays and Crawford [9].
Nu 0:0158 Re0:8

Fig. 4. Change of Nusselt number with Reynolds number for each absorber in m
=0.028 kg/s.

19

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1499

According to this equation obtained for turbulent ow, Nusselt number changed at
between 8.6 to 17.7 level for 2600 < Re < 6500. The values of Nusselt number in
at-plate and type 1 absorber were found to be less than the theoretical values. The
lower useful heat gain (Q) and the higher logarithmic main temperature dierence
may be the reason for decreasing the convective heat coecient. In type 1,
although the eciency increased by two-fold by extending ow line compared to
at-plate collector, the magnitude of heat transfer was less than the theoretical
value. In types 2, 3 and 4, the heat transfer signicantly increased. The heat transfer in type 2 increased 2025%, 6070% in type 3 and 9095% in type 4 compared
to the theoretical value. The reason for that was most probably, the extending of
the ow line and the forming of swirl and secondary ows by staggering the ow
line with surface geometry. Hence, the convective heat transfer coecient increased
by introducing turbulence eect to the uid and this also increased Nusselt
number.
The changing of the pressure loss and friction coecient in the each collector
with Reynolds number are given in Fig. 5 for the maximum mass ow rates. In the
collector designed, the pressure loss increased approximately 1.5 to 4 N/m2 compared to the at-plate collector. Petukhov developed the friction factor for smooth
tubes [10] as follows:
F 0:79 ln Re  1:642

20

According to this theoretical correlation, the friction coecient in at-plate

collector increased 2.9-fold, 4.8-fold in type 1, seven-fold in type 2, 8.6-fold in type
3 and 9.7-fold in type 4. The increase in friction coecient resulted in an increase

Fig. 5. Change of pressure loss and friction caecient with Reynolds number for each absorber in
m
=0.028 kg/s.

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1500

in pressure loss. As known, the pressure loss is an important parameter in terms of

overall cost.
The total exergy loss is shown in Fig. 6. The dimensionless exergy loss obtained
from Eq. (11). increased signicantly according to the result calculated for each
collector. Since the exergy loss changes with ambient conditions, a theoretical correlation does not exist in the literature. However, in our study, same approximation can be applied for minimum exergy loss. If the solar collectors are
considered as a heat exchanger, the maximum heat transfer occurs in case of discharging the collector at the surface temperature of the air inlet. Therefore, a minimum heat loss occurs. According to this statement, for the maximum heat transfer
the following equation can be used.
:

Qmax m:Cp :Tas  Ti

21

Likewise, the minimum pressure loss occurred in collector (Po =Pi 1) can be
dened as the minimum exergy loss. As seen in Fig. 6, the lowest exergy loss
occurred in type 4 as given in Eq. (11), there is a reverse relationship between
dimensionless exergy loss and collector eciency, as well as temperature dierence
(hT). It is clear that when the eciency is maximum, the exergy loss is minimum.
The minimum exergy loss is also given in Fig. 6 for type 4. The exergy loss in type
4 is higher at 65% level compared to the minimum exergy loss. The experimental
results revealed that the pressure loss signicantly aected the exergy loss. The
eect of pressure loss on the exergy loss is in the range of ca. 1215%. Approximately the similar results were also obtained for other collectors. The exergy loss
for type 1 increased 1.6-fold, 2.3-fold for type 2, 3.2-fold for type 3 and 3.5-fold for
type 4 compared to the at-plate collector. The results obtained for exergy loss

Fig. 6. Change of dimensionless exergy loss with Reynolds number for each absorber in
m
=0.028 kg/s.

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1501

gave us same information about collector overall heat loss coecient and collector
eciency.
6. Conclusion
The conclusions can be drawn from the experimental study of the new collectors
designed, and show the eciency of the collector improves with increasing mass
ow rates due to an enhanced heat transfer to the air ow. The eciency of air
collectors increases depending on the surface geometry of the collector and
extension of the air ow line. When the surface roughness is increased, the heat
transfer and pressure loss increases. The optimum slice number of the absorber can
be determined for heat transfer and pressure loss changes the number of absorber
slices in the collector. The exergy loss of the system decreases depending on the
increase of the collector eciency. There is a reverse relationship between dimensionless exergy loss and heat transfer, as well as pressure loss. The more important
parameters in order to decrease the exergy loss are the collector eciency, temperature dierence (ToTi) of the air and pressure loss.
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