Abstract
A numerical study of the natural convection heat transfer and fluid flow in 3D triangular solar collector having a corrugated bottom wall has been carried out using finite volume method. The aim of the study is to investigate how buoyancy forces influence airflow and temperature patterns inside the collector heated from below and cooled on its inclined walls while vertical ones are assumed to be perfect thermal insulators. Rayleigh number is the main parameter which changes from 103 to 105 and Prandtl number is fixed at Pr=0.71. Results are reported in terms of particles trajectories, iso-surfaces of temperature, velocity magnitude and mean Nusselt number. It has been found that the flow structure is sensitive to the value of Rayleigh number and that heat transfer is enhanced with increasing of this parameter.