Numerical Study of Predicting Solar Air Collector Dimensions to Achieve the Optimum Performance

The primary objective of this work is to develop and evaluate a computational model to predict the fluid-flow and heat-transfer properties of a reverse-flow corrugated solar air heater collector, with or without a thermal storage unit. ANSYS 19.0 is used for many applications. This study also included an analysis of digital systems and their application to solving the continuity, momentum, and energy equations. These equations were solved numerically using the finite volume method. In this work, the thermal performance of a flat-plate solar collector with fixed dimensions (length = 1.8 m, width = 0.7 m, channel height = 0.07 m) was evaluated, using air as the working fluid. Temperature differences were measured and plotted against air mass flow rates. The results showed temperature differences across air mass flow rates (0.03-0.06 kg/s) at a solar irradiance of 1000 W/m². For each increase in air mass flow rate, a corresponding decrease in the air temperature difference was observed, ranging from 26.9 °C to 14 °C for mass flow rates of 0.03 and 0.06 kg/s, respectively. This was based on numerical analysis of the solar collector; it has been shown that the thermal efficiency increases with the air mass flow rate.