Thermal Performance of an Absorber Rod Type Solar Air Collector with Single-Path Design

Abstract

Solar air collector is a device that collects heat energy from the sun where solar energy is converted to heat energy. A good solar air collector is when it can absorb maximum heat and can reduce as minimum as heat loss possible. In this study, a solar air collector device has been designed and constructed by attaching an aluminium rod of 210 pieces with height 2 cm on the absorber plate to increase the heat transfer surface area. Apart from that, fin also built in the airway to increase the transfer of heat from plate absorber to air flow. There are 4 parameter of intensities value and mass flow rate is changed in this experiment which are 101.5 W/m2, 302.4 W/m2 , 530.6 W/m2 and 720.0 W/m2 while for the mass flow rate is 0.0236 kg/s, 0.0340 kg/s, 0.0452 kg/s and 0.0584 kg/s. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mass flow rate and the solar intensity in improving the efficiency of thermal solar collectors. The results showed that the efficiency is between 57.2% to 77.4%. Maximum thermal efficiency mass flow rate recorded at 0.0584 kg/s with solar radiation intensity of 530.6 W/m2.