Abstract
This paper presents the thermo-hydraulic performance of small conical ribs on the absorber plate of a solar energy air heater (SAH) using exergy analysis. Application of conical protrusion ribs on the absorber is an attractive solution for enhancing the thermal performance of a SAH. However, these ribs are also responsible for high friction losses and increased fan power consumption caused by the turbulent air flow. To optimize the rib design, it is vital to consider both thermal and hydraulic performance at the same time. The SAH was assessed using an analytic method which predicts the exergy efficiency under operating parameters (e.g., Reynolds number, solar insolation and temperature increase parameter). The following geometric quantities of ribs were evaluated for optimum exergy efficiency: the relative rib height (e/D), which was in the range between 0.200 and 0.044, and the relative rib pitch (p/e), which was in the range between 6 and 12. The combination of a relative rib height of 0.044 and relative rib pitch of 10 exhibits the highest exergy efficiency of 0.0202. The optimization of the rib geometric quantities parameters was performed by considering the temperature increase parameter, aiming to achieve maximum exergy efficiency. The combination of rib parameters e/D = 0.044 and p/e = 10 are noted to yield best performance when operating at a temperature increase parameter above 0.0141 K center dot m(2)/W.