TY - JOUR
TI - Performances of packed bed double pass solar air heater with different inclinations and transverse wire mesh with different intervals
AU - Gnanadurai Sam Stanley Sugantharaj
AU - Kumar Anbarasan Vijay
AU - Kulundaivel Kalidasa Murugavel
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2016
VL - 20
IS - 1
SP - 175
EP - 183
PT - Article
AB - Solar air heating is a technology in which the solar energy from the sun is  captured by an absorbing medium and used to heat the air flowing through the  heater. In this study, thermal performance of a double pass solar air heater  has been investigated experimentally at different conditions. The experiments  were conducted with different inclinations of the collector, with and without  wire mesh vertically fixed at the second pass in transverse direction and  with different mass flow rates. The effect of air mass flow rate, wire mesh  pitch and collector inclination on temperature rise and thermal efficiency  have been studied. Results show that efficiency increases with mass flow  rate. For the same mass flow rate, the thermal efficiency increases with the  decrease in the wire mesh pitch. The maximum daily average efficiency of air  heater was 79.8% at 0.025 kg/s mass flow rate, 10 cm wire mesh gap and 9º  collector inclination facing south. The highest collector efficiency was  observed in solar air heaters with 10 cm wire mesh gap.