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Performance Evaluation of Solar Receiver Heat Exchanger with Rectangular-Wing Vortex Generators

Narin Koolnapadol 1, Pongjet Promvonge 2, and Sompol Skullong 3
1. Department of Automotive Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Technology, Rajabhat Rajanagarindra University, Chachoengsao 24000, Thailand
2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok 10520, Thailand
3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering at Sriracha, Kasetsart University Sriracha Campus, 199 M.6, Sukhumvit Rd., Sriracha, Chonburi 20230, Thailand

Abstract—The paper presents an experimental investigation on heat transfer and flow resistance in a solar air heater (SAH) duct with rectangular-wing vortex generators (RWVGs) on the absorber plate to increase the SAH system performance. The experimental work is carried out in the test duct with its aspect ratio (AR) of 10 for Reynolds number (Re) based on the hydraulic duct diameter ranging from 5290 to 22,700. The RWVGs are placed on the absorber with three attack angles (a = 30°, 45° and 60°) and three relative wing pitches (PR = Pl/H = 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0) at a single relative wing height (BR=b/H=0.67). The experimental result shows that the use of RWVGs leads to the considerable increase in Nusselt number (Nu) over the flat-plate duct (smooth duct) around 4.06–5.79 times while the increase in friction factor (f) is about 11.43–43.97 times. The Nu and f display the increasing trend with the rise of a but show the opposite trend for the increment of PR. The highest thermal performance for using the RWVG roughness is some 1.95 at a = 30° and PR = 1.5. Correlations for Nu and f have also been developed and determined as a function of RWVG parameters.  
 
Index Terms—solar air heater, vortex generators, flow resistance, thermal performance


Cite: Narin Koolnapadol, Pongjet Promvonge, and Sompol Skullong, "Performance Evaluation of Solar Receiver Heat Exchanger with Rectangular-Wing Vortex Generators" International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 130-135, January 2020. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.9.1.130-135

Copyright © 2020 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.