LAUSR

In the present study, a thermo-hydraulic performance (THP) of solar air heater (SAH) has been assessed by placing sine wave-shaped baffles on the heat-absorbing surface. The experiments have been performed by varying Reynolds number ( R e ) ranging from 3000-18,000, relative pitch ( P s t / e ) ranging from 8 to 14, relative height ( e / H ) ranging from 0.4 to 0.55, relative baffle length ( L b / L P ) ranging from 0.054 to 0.081 and angle of attack(α) ranging from 10° to 45° while the duct aspect ratio has been kept fixed at 12. The best set of geometric parameters has been decided based on Nusselt number ( N u b ) and friction factor ( f b ) characteristics of the roughened SAH and compared with the smooth surface SAH, under analogous experimentation conditions. The cost analysis has also been performed and results revels that roughened SAH is more cost-effective than smooth SAH. The correlation for Nusselt number ( N u b ) , friction factor ( f b ) , and thermo-hydraulic performance parameters (η) have been developed using regression analysis and found an average deviation of ±9.15%, ±7%, and ±9.2% respectively, from experimental results.