Optimal thermohydraulic performance of a wire mesh packed solar air heater

This paper is concerned with thermohydraulic investigations on a packed bed solar air heater having its duct packed with blackened wire screen matrices of different geometrical parameters (wire diameter and pitch). The thermohydraulic performance of an air heater in terms of effective efficiency is determined on the basis of actual thermal energy gain subtracted by the primary energy required to generate power needed for pumping air through the packed bed. Based on energy transfer mechanism in the bed, a mathematical model is developed to compute effective efficiency. A design criterion is also suggested to select a matrix for packing the air flow duct of a solar air heater which results in the best thermal efficiency with minimum pumping power penalty. Resulting values of effective efficiency clearly indicate that the packed bed solar air heater investigated is thermohydraulically efficient as compared to flat plate collectors. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.