Efficiency of Recycling Double-Pass V-Corrugated Solar Air Collectors

The influence of recycling on double-pass solar air collectors with welding of the V-corrugated absorber has been studied experimentally and theoretically. Welding the V-corrugated absorber and the recycle-effect concept to the solar air collector was proposed to strengthen the convective heat-transfer coefficient due to turbulence promotion. Both the recycle effect and the V-corrugated absorber can effectively enhance the heat transfer efficiency compared to various designs such as single-pass, flat-plate double-pass, and double-pass wire mesh packed devices. Recycling operations and welding the V-corrugated absorber could enhance the collector efficiency by increasing the recycle ratio, incident solar radiations, and air mass flow rates. The most efficient and economical operating conditions were found at R ≈ 0.5, with relatively small hydraulic dissipated energy compensation. It was found that the turbulence intensity increase from welding the V-corrugated absorber into the solar air collector channel could compensate for the power consumption increase, when considering economic feasibility.