PERFORMANCE OF A MATRIX AIR HEATER

THIS COMMUNICATION PRESENTS A STUDY OF A POROUS FLAT PLATE SOLAR AIR HEATER. AN EARLIER THEORY USED TO ANALYZE SUCH A SYSTEM HAS BEEN MODIFIED BY USING 1) APPROPRIATE BOUNDARY CONDITIONS AND ALSO 2) BY CONSIDERING THE REALISTIC CASE OF DIFFERENT AIR AND MATRIX TEMPERATURES. NUMERICAL CALCULATIONS HAVE BEEN PERFORMED TO BRING OUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EARLIER THEORY AND THE PRESENT THEORY. THE RESULTS OF THE PRESENT THEORY ARE FOUND TO BE IN EXCELLENT AGREEMENT WITH THE MEASUREMENTS OF AN EXPERIMENT. THE YEARLY PERFORMANCE OF THESYSTEM HAS ALSO BEEN EVALUATED FOR DELHI-TYPE CLIMATES.