Experimental investigations on single-absorber solar air heaters

Abstract Flat, corrugated and vee-corrugated solar air heaters having a single absorber are designed, fabricated and tested. The rear plate in these collectors is replaced by rigid synthetic foam. It is found that the vee-corrugated absorbers give the best performance. The efficiency of the commercially corrugated absorber is about 5% lower than that of the vee-corrugated absorber. Correlations for predicting forced convection heat transfer coefficients for these solar air heaters have been obtained. The analytical model for these air heaters has also been developed.