A comparative numerical study of various ribs geometries on the performance of a solar air heater absorber plate

Abstract In this study, a numerical investigation is conducted to compare the impact of various ribs such as transverse, inclined, V-shaped and arc-shaped fixed on the absorber plate of a solar air heater under consistent boundary conditions. The analysis considers Reynolds numbers ranging from 3000 to 15000 and a heat flux corresponding to 1000 W m −2 . Various geometric characteristics of the ribs, including relative roughness height, relative pitch, number of gaps, rib-arm angle (attack angle), and relative gap width, are kept constant throughout the investigation in this comparative analysis. The simulations are carried out using ANSYS-Fluent software, and the theoretical results are employed for validation. Results indicate that at Reynolds number 15,000, the maximum Thermal-Hydraulic Performance Parameter (THPP) for V-shaped ribs is 2.15 followed by arc-shaped ribs as 1.6.