Thermal Analysis of New Solar Air Heater with Inclined Perforated Absorber Plates: Experimental Study

Solar air heaters (SAHs) have an inherent drawback: the conventional mechanism is low inside these collectors’ types. Use of perforations is a simple technique to improve convection, and this investigation experimentally assesses a novel design SAH utilizing three inclined perforated absorber plates. Two scenarios are considered to assess the dynamics and efficiency of this perforated SAH, including mair = 0.012 kg/s and 0.024 kg/s. Numerous sensors monitored the dynamics of the perforated SAH and ambient factors for 12 hours in October 2022. The experimental outcomes illustrate that the perforation method remarkably enhances the thermal efficiency of the perforated SAH compared with standard smooth SAHs. The daily thermal efficiency of the perforated SAH reaches 73.30% and 82.65%, while the outlet air temperature experiences peak values of 39 oC and 42 oC at noon and keeps within 90% of its maximum value for 2 hours for the scenarios considered. Improving the convection mechanism causes the flowing air to extract the absorber’s thermal energy more effectively. Hence the SAH can produce an airstream near its maximum temperature for an extended duration. In conclusion, the perforation method is a robust, simple method to boost the thermal efficiency of SAHs.