Experimental Investigation on The Thermal Efficiency of a Folded Plate Solar Air Heater

Azza A.Abou EL-Hassan; Mohamed M. Khairat Dawood; Mohamed S. EL Morseb; Sayed I. Abdel-Mageeda; Osama A. Sharaf

doi:10.54489/ijtim.v2i2.105

Authors

Azza A.Abou EL-Hassan Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt
Mohamed M. Khairat Dawood Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt
Mohamed S. EL Morseb Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo American University
Sayed I. Abdel-Mageeda Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt
Osama A. Sharaf Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54489/ijtim.v2i2.105

Keywords:

Solar air heater, Energy Storage, Flat Plate, PCM, Folded plate, Experimental study, Thermal performance

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to carry out an experimental investigation of folded and flat plate solar air heaters. The current experimental investigation was carried out in Ismailia, Egypt. Ismailia is located at 30.60˚ N latitude, 32.27˚ E longitude, and has an average elevation of 0 m from the sea level. The experimental run began from 8:00 am to 9 pm, with three air mass flow rates of 0.0068 ,0.048 and 0.0021 kg/ s. The parameters affecting the thermal performance of the flat and folded plate solar air heater. These parameters include solar radiation, the temperature difference of air across the heater, instantaneous thermal efficiency, and daily average efficiency. From the experimental results, it was found that the outlet temperature of the folded plate solar air heater was higher than ambient temperature by 19 ˚C during 5 h after sunset compared with 2 ˚C during 1 h after sunset for flat plate solar air heater when the mass flow rate was 0.0021 kg/s. It was also concluded that the daily efficiency of the folded solar heater was 38% higher than the corresponding values when the flat plate when the mass flow rate was 0.0068 kg/s.