Effect of Different Operating Conditions on the Thermal Performance of a Helical Flow Path Solar Air Collector

Solar air collectors are generally used in various applications such as space heating and product drying. In this work, both experimental and numerical analyses are conducted on a solar air collector with a helical flow path. The thermal performance of the solar collector is examined under different operating conditions. Simultaneously, a CFD model is developed to investigate the fluid flow and heat transfer in the system. The numerical model is validated against experimental data with average error of 3%. The study specifically analyzed the effect of different mass flow rates (0.0085 kg/s, 0.017 kg/s, 0.025 kg/s, and 0.034 kg/s) and various solar radiation intensities. Local flow characteristics are presented and discussed. Experimental results indicated that the maximum solar radiation intensity reached 912 W/m2 at 13:30. The air temperature produced reached 76.6°C under a under mass flow rate of 0.0085kg/s. Numerically, the thermal performance ranged from 33.8% to 64 % for mass flow rates between 0.0085 and 0.034 kg/s.