Experimental study of heat transfer characteristics of an impinging jet solar air heater with fins

The current article unleashes an experimental research in context to a solar air heater in which jet impingement technique has been simultaneously used with array of fins. An earnest attempt has been made to depict the significance of important geometrical parameters, namely fin spacing ratio, jet diameter ratio, and stream-wise pitch ratio, on the heat transfer of this new duct. The experiments were conducted for a range of mass flow rate, (m) over dot = 0.056-0.112 kg/s, and Reynolds number (Re) = 5700-11,700. It is observed that heat transfer rate is certainly enhanced by this excellent idea which substantiates the novelty of this research. The experimental results are validated with reference to the smooth (conventional type) solar air heater. The distribution of enhancement factor with Reynolds number as a function of above-mentioned geometrical parameters has been presented. A substantial enhancement in heat transfer of the order 2.5 times has been reported in comparison with the simple flat-plate (conventional type) duct at the higher values of Reynolds number. The experimental data collected are accessed to derive a correlation for the Nusselt number as a function of relevant geometrical and operational parameters of the duct.