Faculty Publications
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Item Exergy Analysis of a Triangular Duct Solar Air Heater with Square Ribs(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2022) Nidhul, K.; Kumar, S.; Yadav, A.K.; Anish, S.The awareness about limited energy resources has urged the scientific community to scrutinize the energy conversion devices and optimize existing limited resources. In this analytical study, the exergetic performance analysis of a triangular cross-section square ribbed solar air heater (SAH) is compared with a conventional SAH. Reynolds number (Re) and temperature rise parameter (∆T/G) are varied, and their effect on exergetic efficiency is quantified. For the present study, maximum exergetic efficiency for the present study is obtained for non-dimensionalized rib height (e/D) of 0.05 and non-dimensionalized rib pitch (P/e) of 10. The optimum combinations of roughness parameters are interpreted through plots to design turbulators for triangular cross-section solar air heaters. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.Item Critical review of ribbed solar air heater and performance evaluation of various V-rib configuration(Elsevier Ltd, 2021) Nidhul, K.; Yadav, A.K.; Anish, S.; Kumar, S.The low heat transfer rate in a flat plate solar air heater (SAH) is due to the development of a laminar sub-layer near the heated absorber plate. Owing to this, the plate temperature rises substantially, instigating losses and thus reducing the efficiency. Extensive research has been carried out to mitigate this problem, of which passive technique emerged to be a promising solution. The passive method involves the application of fins/turbulators/ribs on the surface where the boundary layer develops so that it breaks the same. Various profiles and configurations of the ribs ranging from transverse to inclined and continuous to discrete have been presented concisely. Correlations on Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor (f) for different rib configurations have been summarized in order so that it can be accessed for future research. 3-D CFD analysis is carried out to gain insight into the flow pattern of various V-ribbed SAH, and with the help of streamlines and contours, the findings are established. Furthermore, various exergy destruction has been studied in detail for different V-rib configurations, namely– V-rib, multiple V-rib, and multiple V-rib with the gap, and analyzed in detail for prospective studies. Exergetic performance study of these rib configurations indicates that the multiple ribs and the multiple rib-gap combinations enhance exergetic efficiency (ηex) by 12% and 31.6%, respectively, in comparison to V-rib SAH. © 2021 Elsevier LtdItem Machine learning approach for optimization and performance prediction of triangular duct solar air heater: A comprehensive review(Elsevier Ltd, 2023) Nidhul, K.; Thummar, D.; Yadav, A.K.; Anish, S.This paper presents a comprehensive review of various kinds of distinct artificial roughness employed in rectangular and triangular duct solar air heaters to aid prospective researchers in finding a critical gap in the domain of solar air heaters. A Machine Learning (ML) model is developed using 72 distinct rib combinations compiled to 454 datasets and trained using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to predict the performance of ribbed triangular duct Solar Air Heater (SAH). The developed ML model predicts the data with an average deviation of <3%. Owing to reasonably accurate predictions, the same could be increased when more cases (geometric or operating parameters) are added to the databases by retraining the ANN. Further, a second law analysis of the rib configurations features collector efficiency and entropy generation variation with Re for various rib parameters. For the Re range of 4000 to 18000, optimum parameters such as rib height, pitch, chamfer angle, and inclinations are obtained for triangular duct SAH. This could help design engineers obtain the performance parameters of ribbed triangular duct SAH with other artificial roughness designs, possibly with a combination of different geometrical and operating parameters, without having to perform tests. © 2023 International Solar Energy SocietyItem Enhanced thermo-hydraulic performance in a V-ribbed triangular duct solar air heater: CFD and exergy analysis(Elsevier Ltd, 2020) Nidhul, K.; Kumar, S.; Yadav, A.; Anish, S.Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and exergy analysis are conducted to investigate the impact of secondary flow produced by V-ribs on the overall performance of a triangular solar air heater (SAH) duct. For a fixed relative rib pitch (Rp = 10) and relative rib height (Rh = 0.05), the effect of rib inclination (?) is studied using CFD technique for varying Reynolds number (5000 ? Re ? 20000). Based on the CFD simulation results, empirical correlations capable of predicting Nu and f with an absolute variance of 8.7%, and 4.7%, respectively, are developed. Employing these correlations, exergetic performance analysis is carried out. Maximum effectiveness parameter (?) of 2.01 is obtained for ? = 45° at Re = 7500. The exergy analysis reveals that the entropy generated is lower for the ribbed triangular duct compared to the smooth duct with maximum enhancement in exergetic efficiency (?ex) as 23% for ? = 45°. The study is extended for the rectangular duct to compare the performance with the ribbed triangular duct SAH (? = 45°). Results show that ribbed triangular duct SAH (? = 45°) is superior over various configurations of the ribbed rectangular duct SAH at higher mass flow rates. © 2020 Elsevier LtdItem Influence of Rectangular Ribs on Exergetic Performance in a Triangular Duct Solar Air Heater(American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 2020) Nidhul, K.; Kumar, S.; Yadav, A.; Anish, S.Several artificial roughness (ribs) configurations have been used in flat plate solar air heaters (SAH) in recent years to improve their overall performance. In the present work, energy and exergy analyses of rectangular ribs in a triangular duct SAH for varying relative rib heights (e/D = 0.02-0.04), relative rib pitches (P/e = 5-15), and rib aspect ratios (e/w = 0.5-4) are evaluated and compared with smooth SAH. The analysis reveals that the entropy generated due to heat transfer is lower for the ribbed triangular duct compared to the smooth duct. It is also observed that the width of the rib plays a crucial role in minimizing heat losses to the environment. A maximum reduction of 43% and 62% in exergy losses to the environment and exergy losses due to heat transfer to the fluid is achieved, respectively, with a rib aspect ratio (e/w) of 4 compared to the smooth plate. It is found that in contrast to the smooth plate, ribs beneath the absorber plate effectively improves thermal and exergetic efficiency. Maximum enhancement of 36% and 17% is obtained in exergetic efficiency (?ex) and thermal efficiency (th), respectively, for e/w = 4, P/e = 10 and e/D = 0.04. Results also show the superiority of the ribbed triangular duct over the ribbed rectangular duct for an application requiring compact SAH with a higher flowrate. © 2020 by ASME.Item Thermo-hydraulic and exergetic performance of a cost-effective solar air heater: CFD and experimental study(Elsevier Ltd, 2022) Nidhul, K.; Yadav, A.K.; Anish, S.; Arunachala, U.C.An experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study is carried out to investigate the impact of secondary flow strengthening the thermo-hydraulic performance of discrete multiple inclined baffles in a flat plate solar air heater (SAH) with semi-cylindrical sidewalls. Initially, for a fixed relative baffle height (Rh = 0.1), the relative baffle pitch (Rp) for continuous baffles is varied in the range of 0.6–1 to obtain the optimum baffle pitch for 6000 p. A maximum thermo-hydraulic performance of 2.69 is obtained for the gap at the trailing apex. The proposed design has a higher collector efficiency, 55–70%, compared to the ribbed rectangular SAH design exhibiting 30–55%. With lower exergy losses, the present SAH design has higher exergetic efficiency (1.5%–2.2%)than ribbed rectangular SAH (0.9%–1.7%) for the range of Re studied. Further, at low Re, the present SAH design has a higher coefficient of performance, indicating that it is cost-effective than ribbed rectangular SAH designs. © 2021 Elsevier LtdItem Numerical Study for Enhancement of Heat Transfer Using Discrete Metal Foam with Varying Thickness and Porosity in Solar Air Heater by LTNE Method(MDPI, 2022) Diganjit, R.; Gnanasekaran, G.; Mobedi, M.A two-dimensional rectangular domain is considered with a discrete arrangement at equal distances from copper metal foam in a solar air heater (SAH). The local thermal non-equilibrium model is used for the analysis of heat transfer in a single-pass rectangular channel of SAH for different mass flow rates ranging from 0.03 to 0.05 kg/s at 850 W/m2 heat flux. Three different pores per inch (PPI) and porosities of copper metal foam with three different discrete thicknesses at equal distances are studied numerically. This paper evaluates the performance of SAH with 10 PPI 0.8769 porosity, 20 PPI 0.8567 porosity, and 30 PPI 0.92 porosity at 22 mm, 44 mm, and 88 mm thicknesses. The Nusselt number for 22 mm, 44 mm, and 88 mm thicknesses is 157.64%, 183.31%, and 218.60%, respectively, higher than the empty channel. The performance factor for 22 mm thick metal foam is 5.02% and 16.61% higher than for 44 mm and 88 mm thick metal foam, respectively. Hence, it is found that metal foam can be an excellent option for heat transfer enhancement in SAH, if it is designed properly. © 2022 by the authors.Item Analytical investigation on thermo hydraulic performance augmentation of triangular duct solar air heater integrated with wavy fins(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2023) Renald, T.R.; P, S.; Matheswaran, M.; Gnanasekaran, G.Present work deals with performance improvement of triangular duct solar air heater by integration of wavy fin on absorber plate. An analytical model has been developed for the investigation of design parameters such as fin pitch ratio with ranges 0.05–0.2 and fin amplitude ratio with ranges 0.025–0.125. MATLAB code is generated to solve the energy balance equations by iterative procedure. The influence of design parameters on effective thermal and thermal efficiency is presented and its influences are discussed. Increasing the fin pitch ratio decreases the thermal and thermo hydraulic efficiency drastically. The positive effect of fin amplitude ratio is observed; increasing of fin amplitude ratio improves the thermal efficiency and effective efficiency up to the critical Reynolds number. The peak thermal efficiency of 85% is observed and thermo hydraulic efficiency of 80.16% is found at fin pitch ratio of 0.05 and fin amplitude ratio of 0.125. The maximum thermo hydraulic performance enhancement is 15.7% as it compared simple conventional solar triangular duct air extractors. The design plots are developed to select the performance parameters to attain required temperature rise values. © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.Item Thermohydraulic Efficiency of a Solar Air Heater in the Presence of Graded Aluminium Wire Mesh—A Combined Experimental–Numerical Study(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2023) Diganjit, R.; Gnanasekaran, N.; Mobedi, M.In this work, aluminium wire mesh (WM) samples with 3, 9, and 18 pores per inch (PPI) and porosities of 0.894, 0.812, and 0.917, respectively, were combined together to form graded structures including 3-9-18, 9-18-3, and 18-3-9 PPIs. A 5 mm thickness for each WM was considered for a length of 2 m and inserted into a single-pass solar air heater (SAH) in which the height of the SAH was 120 mm. For the numerical analysis, a 3D numerical model was considered in ANSYS fluent software, and the Rosseland radiation model renormalization group (RNG) k-ε enhanced wall function was incorporated to account for solar radiation. The local thermal equilibrium (LTE) model was considered to obtain the heat-transfer characteristics of the WM. The numerical results of the thermohydraulic performance parameter (THPP) of the 9-18-3 PPI WM were 13.04% and 11.92% higher than the 3-9-18 and 18-3-9 PPI samples, respectively. Later, 25% of the 9-18-3 graded wire mesh (GWM) was considered at four different locations, i.e., 0, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 m away from the inlet, and analysed to obtain the best location for efficient heat transfer. The computational results show that 1.5 m away from the inlet is the best location among the different locations considered. The experimental results of the GWM at 1.5 m away from the inlet demonstrated a 20.91% and 23.32% increase in thermal efficiency compared to the empty channel for the 0.027 kg/s and 0.058 kg/s mass flow rates, respectively. From numerical-cum-experimental analysis, it was found that inserting 25% length of GWM of the entire length of the test section at a distance of 1.5 m from the inlet in single pass SAH improves the overall performance of the empty channel of single-pass SAH. © 2023 by the authors.Item Energy and exergy analysis of solar air heater with non-uniform porous medium under varying solar intensity and radiation effects: a 3-D CFD study(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2025) Nidhul, K.; Joshi, A.; Yadav, A.K.; Anish, S.The effect of a thin porous layer on the performance of a solar air heater (SAH) is investigated for both uniform and non-uniform configurations. 3-D computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations of SAH are performed for turbulent flow, and the transient performance with porous medium configurations is studied. A discrete-ordinate (D-O) model is employed, and diurnal variations of solar heat flux and inlet air temperature variations are considered in this study. The porous medium above the absorber plate significantly enhances the SAH's thermo-hydraulic performance parameter (THPP). The proposed configuration reduces the irreversibility in heat transfer and the possible hot spots that could occur when ribs are employed as artificial roughness, thereby enhancing the Nusselt number (Nu). The highest increment in Nu is obtained as 7.5 times, leading to maximum enhancement in THPP by 60% for descending porous medium compared to uniform porous medium configuration. Further, from the exergy analysis, the descending porous medium reported higher collector efficiency (66-70%). Owing to higher exergy gain and lower exergy losses, the energetic efficiency of the descending porous configuration is higher than the uniform porous configuration. Both thermo-hydraulic and exergy performance increases due to conduction and radiation within the porous medium apart from convection. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.