Performance Evaluation of Single Pass Solar Air Heater with Stepped-Type Arrangement of Metal Foam by a Numerical Study

Abstract

A solar air heater is easy to build and easy to use for drying applications, room heating purposes, etc. In the present study, single-pass forced convection rectangular-type solar air heater is studied numerically. The copper metal foam with 0.92 porosity is used for case (a) empty channel, cases (b) to (e) comprising of different stepped-type arrangements, and case (f) fully filled metal foam condition and studied numerically to obtain outlet temperature, pressure drop and the performance factor of the solar air heater. The Reynolds number is varied from 4401 to 5868. Based on this range of Reynolds number RNG k-ε model with enhanced wall function is adopted for numerical simulations. The local thermal equilibrium model is used to simulate the porous zone. The Rosseland radiation model has been chosen with solar ray tracing method. The case (c) is the best stepped-type arrangement to get same outlet temperature compared to fully filled metal foam case (f). Hence, the material cost is minimized. The temperature rise is 8.89% more compared to empty channel solar air heater. Case (c) has less pressure drop compared to other metal foam arrangements. The performance factor for case (c) is 2.03. © 2024, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.