THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF V-CORRUGATED SOLAR AIR HEATER FOR SPACE HEATING

Abstract

This work is an effort to investigate the thermal performance of a V-Corrugated Solar Air Heater (SAH), which is intended for supplying heating to an office space having a floor area of 84 m2. Thermal performance investigation has been carried out both theoretically and experimentally. V-Corrugated SAHs have not been investigated for space heating in offices, hence this study aims to contribute by proposing and promoting them for this purpose. The load of the office space has been evaluated by the Energy Plus building simulation program as 4546 W. Thermal performance of the SAH is investigated by solving the governing equations with developed MATLAB code and concurrently by carrying out real-time monitoring of the operating parameters (e.g. component temperatures, air speed, etc.) of the SAH. It is aimed to obtain the temperature of each component of the SAH, useful heat output, thermal efficiency, number of SAHs and the corresponding area that is necessary to meet the heating load. It is found that 9 SAHs with 16 m2 are required to supply the target load for the experimental case and 6 SAHs with 10 m2 for the theoretical case.