Abstract

GONZALEZ-BAYON, Juan José; BORRAJO-PEREZ, Rubén  and  KOULIBALY, Amadou. Thermal Performance of flat solar collectors for air heating working in natural convection. A parametric analysis. Ingeniería Mecánica [online]. 2016, vol.19, n.2, pp. 68-77. ISSN 1815-5944.

In this paper the analysis of the energetic performance of flat solar collectors for air heating with simple cover operating in natural circulation regime was developed. For the analysis the collector was modelled and simulated with CFD technics, using the Fluent 6.3code. The collector performance was analyzed versus the change of design parameters (length, air canal height) and versus the change of the solar radiation (day hours). As results the graphic dependence and correlations of hourly and daily collector thermal efficiency, of exit air temperature and of air mass flow as function of the collector length, of the air canal height and of the solar incident radiation were obtained. The obtained correlations are useful for the designers of solar air heaters as tools to optimize the design as function of desired objective, either higher air temperature, higher efficiency, higher hot mass flow or any combination of this parameters.

Keywords : Solar plane collector; air solar heater; natural convection; thermal efficiency.

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