Thermal performance analysis of perforated pin fin solar air heater

The present paper presents the thermal performance analysis of a perforated pin fin solar air heater. The width of channel is 1000mm and the height is 30mm. The analysis covers the following ranges: Fin spacing 40mm - 80mm, mass flow rate 30kg/hour – 180kg/hour and solar intensity 600 – 900 W/m². A comparative study has been carried out between the conventional solar air heater and perforated pin fin solar air heater. A mathematical model has been developed to find out the solution. Programming has been done using Mat lab software to obtain the results too find out the solution. The effects of mass flow rate of air on the outlet temperature and thermal efficiency were studied. The results have been compared with that of a conventional solar air heater. The results show substantial enhancement in the performance of the solar air heater with the addition of fins on the absorber plate. The maximum efficiency obtained for a conventional single pass solar air heater with mass flow rate of 30kg/hour was 19.22%. While the maximum efficiency obtained for a single pass solar air heater with perforated pin fin was 46.65%. The outlet temperature of 340.17K was obtained for conventional solar air heater and 393.22K was obtained for perforated pin fin solar air heater. (paper)