Experimental Investigation of Solar Air Heater Using Pin Fin Absorber Plate with Pin Immersed in Paraffin Wax.

Solar air heaters are extensively being used to heat air, but has low thermal efficiency because of poor heat transfer between the solar absorber plate and the air in transient through it, and also due to availability of solar radiation only during the day time and an increase in demand during the night. In the present study, the thermal performance of a solar air heater with pin fin absorber plate with pin immersed in paraffin wax as phase change material has been investigated experimentally. The proposed solar air heater has been designed, fabricated and tested under the weather conditions of Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India (latitude 23° 65'N and longitude 86° 47'E). The effects of varying the mass flow rate of air on the performance of the solar air heater have been further analysed. Experimental investigation shows that the average daily efficiency of the proposed solar air heater increases with an increase in the mass flow rate of air. Also, pin fin absorber plate with pin immersed in paraffin wax further enhances its performance with an increase in heat transfer rate from the absorber plate to Phase Change Material (PCM) bed during charging, and also from the PCM to the absorber plate during discharging, resulting an increase in the performance of the solar air heater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]