Numerical Investigation of the Performance of a Solar Air Heater Equipped with a Packed Bed
Abstract
This work presents the application of packed beds into the flat plate solar collectors using CFD modeling to provide a detailed analysis of the flow distribution and heat transfer between the fluid and solid phases. The studied solar collector is a flat plate solar air heater that is equipped with several cylindrical particles beneath the absorber, forming a packed structure. Performing a mesh independency study and validations with correlations and experimental data resulted in robust numerical modeling. Testing a range of air mass flow rates in a turbulent regime showed that compared to the smooth collector design, the proposed configuration increases the pressure drop while the heat transfer area between the fluid and solid phases grows and higher heat is exchanged between the two. The results of this study can be further used for the application of encapsulated phase change materials, where the containers have the same geometry and size as the particles in this study.