MATHEMATICAL MODELLING AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT SOLAR AIR COLLECTORS

The purpose of using solar air collectors is to raise the atmospheric air temperature to a temperature which can be used for various low and medium temperature applications. Collector, absorber and airflow arrangement are the most important components in the solar air collector. The performance of the collector depends on its heat loss and the absorber area that is in contact with the airflow. This study involves the theoretical simulation of the effect of mass flow rate on the performance, for flat plate and v-groove collectors that are in single and double pass configurations. Results show that the v-groove double pass air collector has the highest efficiency value of 56% at 0.06 kg/m^3 s. The performance is greater than flat plate double pass collector, which has an efficiency of 54% under the same operating conditions.