LAUSR

The present study introduces a fuzzy logic-based expert system (FLES) for evaluating the thermal performance of corrugated plate solar air collector (CPSAC) under different climatic conditions of North Eastern India. The FLES model consists of subtractive clustering with Takagi–Sugeno–Kang fuzzy logic (TSK-FL) model. Work considered mass flow rate (m) 0.0039–0.018 kg/s, collector tilt angles (θ) 30–60°, solar radiation (Q) 230–1086 W/m2, ambient temperature (T) 21–34 °C as input and efficiency (η), exergetic efficiency ($$\eta_{II}$$ηII), temperature rise (∆T), and pressure drop (∆P) as output parameters for the study. First, 270 trails of experimentation have been carried out on CPSAC by varying the input parameter to get a historical database. Second, modeling of the historical data and optimization of CPSAC parameters have been performed. Third, the parametric analysis is also performed to study the effect of parameters on the thermal performance of CPSAC. Parametric results reveal that η increases with m, while up to a certain value of θ, Q, T. At last, the effectiveness and accuracy of the model is judged via various validation tests with experimental data, published data, and artificially generated data. It is observed that FLES model predicts accuracy results with an accuracy of ≈ 97.5% and optimal conditions are at m = 0.00785 kg/s, θ = 45°, Q = 727 W/m2, and T = 29.6 °C, and the corresponding outputs are η = 35.9%, $$\eta_{II}$$ηII = 12.8%, ∆T = 34.7 °C and ∆P = 48.8 Pa.