Energy and Exergy Analysis of Solar Air Heaters with Varied Geometries

An indoor standard test procedure is developed to experimentally investigate the steady state energy and exergy performance of single-pass flat plate solar air heater (SPFPSAH), roughened plate dual-pass solar air heater (RPDPSAH), finned plate dual-pass solar air heater (FPDPSAH) and wire mesh dual-pass solar air heater (WMDPSAH) at varied mass flow rates and solar intensities. The analytical solution of the energy balance equations for various elements of the SPFPSAH, RPDPSAH, FPDPSAH and WMDPSAH is determined using a MATLAB 8.1 program and correlated with experimental findings. The analytical and experimental results show that the energy and exergy performance of WMDPSAH is superior to FPDPSAH, RPDPSAH and SPFPSAH. The pressure drop of WMDPSAH is higher than that of FPDPSAH, RPDPSAH and SPFPSAH. From the economic analysis, WMDPSAH is found economically viable within the opted conditions compared with FPDPSAH and RPDPSAH. The analytical and experimental results are in fairly good agreement.