Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 48 (2021) 101673

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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments

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Experimental investigation of impact of the energy storage medium on the

thermal performance of double pass solar air heater
Raj Kumar a, Gaurav a, Sushil Kumar b, *, Asif Afzal c, d, *, A. Muthu Manokar e,
Mohsen Sharifpur f, g, *, Alibek Issakhov h
a
Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Shoolini University, Solan, HP 173229, India
b
Department of Physics and Electronics, Hansraj College, University of Delhi, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, P. A. College of Engineering (Affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi), Mangaluru 574153, India
d
Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Technology, Glocal University, Delhi-Yamunotri Marg, SH-57, Mirzapur Pole, Saharanpur District, Uttar Pradesh
247121, India
e
Department of Mechanical Engineering, B. S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science and Technology, Vandalur, Tamil Nadu 600 048, India
f
Clean Energy Research Group, Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Pretoria, Hatfield, Pretoria, South Africa
g
Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan
h
Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Department of Mathematical and Computer Modelling, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In this research work, a solar air heater with double pass (SAHD) configuration having different porous mediums
Heat transfer on its absorber plate is experimentally investigated. The stone pebbles, mild steel and aluminium chips have been
Double pass solar air heater used as porous mediums to augment the convective heat transfer (CHT) from plate to the air flowing in channel
Thermal efficiency
of SAHD. The experiment is conducted with these three materials at different mass flow rates (MFR) altering from
Porous material
Thermal hydraulic performance
0.005 to 0.03 kg/s and at distinct solar intensities. The thermal efficiency (ηth ) and thermohydraulic efficiency
(ηthe ) of SAHD with three porous materials are computed at different MFR to analyse their impact on thermal
performance. Findings reveal that SAHD with the porous medium on the absorber plate have higher heat
transfer, thermal efficiency and thermohydraulic efficiency as compared to SAHD without porous medium. Out
of the three materials used in experimentation, aluminium is found to have maximum influence on the perfor­
mance of SAHD. The highest enhancement in heat transfer, ηth and ηthe are achieved with aluminium chips as a
porous medium. The maximum enhancements in ηth and ηthe obtained are 84% and 74% respectively. The highest
ηthe is attained at MFR of 0.025 kg/s for aluminium chips. The present study concludes that SAHD configuration
with the porous medium in its 2nd passage is an efficient design for heat transfer improvement.

Introduction
Depletion of conventional energy sources, economic and environ­
mental considerations make it vital to employ and to take benefit of
renewable energy sources [1]. Extensive research has been carried out in
the field of renewable energy sources such as solar [2-11], wind [12],
geothermal [13-16], and hydrogen energy [17] to utilize them effi­
ciently for energy requirements. Solar collectors and solar panels are
expected to play big roles in future of energy conversion systems [2-11].
Solar air heaters (SAH) collect the solar radiation from the sun and
utilize it to heat the fluid. SAH can be categorized into single and double
pass configuration based on the air flow. In single pass SAH air flows in
one passage of SAH but in double pass configuration air flows through
two passages leading to enhanced heat transfer area. SAH have been
widely used for domestic and industrial purposes etc. Although several
studies have been done on heat transfer enhancement in conventional
SAH but thermal efficiency (ηth ) of SAH is still low. The search of a
suitable design for various applications has led to the development of
various types of SAH. The fabricated design should be capable of min­
imising the heat losses and enhancing the collector efficiencies. To in­
crease the TP of solar collectors, different porous mediums such as
stones, crushed glass, wool and metal wool have been used as energy
storage medium. Different innovative designs of SAH use such materials

* Corresponding authors at: Department of Physics, Hansraj College, Universiy of Delhi, Delhi-110007, India (S. Kumar). Department of Mechanical Engineering, P.
A. College of Engineering (Affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi), Mangaluru 574153, India (A. Afzal); Department of Medical Research,
China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan (M. Sharifpur).
E-mail addresses: sushil8207@gmail.com (S. Kumar), asif.afzal86@gmail.com (A. Afzal), mohsen.sharifpur@up.ac.za (M. Sharifpur).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2021.101673
Received 24 June 2021; Received in revised form 10 October 2021; Accepted 12 October 2021
Available online 22 October 2021
2213-1388/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
R. Kumar et al.
Nomenclature
m Mass flow rate,kg/s
Cp Specific heat (Air), J/(kg K)
To Air outlet temperature, 0C
Ti Air inlet temperature , 0C
ρ Air density,kg/m3
A Area of cross-section ,m2
V Velocity of air,m/s
I Solar intensity of radiation,W/m2
Ac Area of collector plate,m2
Pfan Power of fan,W
Pflow Force required to suck the air into the channel,W
for thermal enhancement because these materials are cheap and easily
available.
Abdullah et al. [18] have used aluminium cans as turbulators to
enhance the ηth of SAHD. Aluminium cans were used on both sides of
collector plate to double the area of absorption of heat. They have found
maximum temperature difference of 27 ◦ C at MFR of 0.02 kg/s. Ahmed
and Mohammed [19] have experimentally analysed the performance of
hybrid SAH. They have utilized SAH with double pass configuration for
examination. They have concluded that porous media increase the ηth up
to 3% and enhance the exist temperature of the air when used in the
lower channel. SAHD with porous media has found to increase the daily
ηth from 51.25% to 80.23%. Alam and Kim [20] have carried out nu­
merical study on SAHD to augment its thermal performance. They have
used rectangular and parabolic types of SAH during investigation. They
have varied the angle from 30◦ to 90◦ at which the obstacles were placed
on the absorber plate. They have used inclined and staggered types of
observer plate and varied the Reynolds number from 6000 to 18000.
Maximum increase in Nu was found to be 2.05 and 1.73 for staggered
and inclined pattern respectively. From thermohydraulic performance
of SAHD, the staggered pattern was found to be more reliable than in­
clined pattern at all angles. Alam and Kim [21] have studied various
methods for increasing the performance of SAHD. They have found that
packed bed was most reliable. The packed bed was found to increases
the TP with minimal thermal losses to the surroundings and less pressure
drop. Ho et al. [22] experimentally studied SAHD with recycling oper­
ation. The mixing of air was done through the recycling of air into the
double-pass. They found that the efficiency of SAHD can be increase by
using parallel collectors for recycling. This configuration was found to
be 28 to 95% better than the series configuration for recycling operation.
It has been also concluded that the recycling operation is more reliable
thermos-hydraulically and economically. Ho et al. [23] have investi­
gated the TP of a SAHD with fins and baffles. They have used recycling
configuration and compared this study with other configurations of
SAHD. They have found that double pass configuration with fins and
baffles’ involving recycling of the outlet air was more reliable than other
configurations. Naphon [24] have explored the ηth of SAHD with and
without porous media on absorber plate. They have found that SAHD
with pours media is better choice as compared with without pours
media. El-Sebaii et al. [25] studied the ηth of a SAHD by utilizing gravel
and limestone as an energy storage medium. The ηth of SAHD was found
to increase with MFR up to 0.05 kg/s. The authors have claimed better
heat transfer augmentation with gravel as compared to limestone.
Omojaro and Aldabbagh [26] have studied two configurations of SAH,
single-pass and double pass configuration. In single pass configuration
air flows only in one chamber and in one direction only while in double
pass configuration, air flows in two channels. At the same MFR, SAHD
has high ηth as compared to single pass. Steel wire mesh was used as a
porous medium. Ramani et al. [27] have studied the SAHD in which the
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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 48 (2021) 101673
ηfan Efficiency of fan, dimensionless
ηmotor Efficiency of electric motor, dimensionless
ΔP Pressure drop across the channel of SAH,Pascal(Pa)
Qt Thermal heat gain,W
TP Thermal performance
ηth Thermal efficiency, dimensionless
ηthe Thermohydraulic efficiency, dimensionless
SAHD Solar air heater with double pass
Nu Nusselt number, dimensionless
f Friction factor, dimensionless
SAC Solar air channel
SAH Solar air heaters
STC Solar thermal collectors
air was flowing in one passage in counter flow direction and the mate­
rials forming porous medium were placed on the second passage. The
significance of porous material was studied using a mathematical model
and experimental analysis. Gonzalez et al. [28] have experimentally
investigated the TP of a SAHD with counter-flow configuration and
described its thermal behaviour using a semi-empirical thermal model.
An optimum balance between the air MFR and power consumption rate
of the fan was established. The experimental results were reproduced
with the theoretical model with good accuracy. Mahmood et al. [29]
have used transverse fins to examine the TP of SAHD. The findings show
improvement in the TP with rise in air flow rate. Singh and Dhiman [30]
have reviewed the TP of SAHD and packed bed configuration by
considering various parameters. Ho et al. [31] have designed SAH with
two passages for the air stream. The absorber plate was made up of wire
mesh type porous media. Both wire meshes and double pass was found
to enhance the TP of SAH significantly. The performance of SAH was
also found to be enhanced with external recycling of the air. The
external recycling of the air cause decrease in the outlet temperature
difference of SAH but this difference doesn’t affect the increase due to
remixing air at the inlet. Chouksey and Sharma [32] have investigated
the SAH with single pass configuration. Wire mesh painted with black
colour was used to absorb solar radiation. A 2-D model was established
to examine the TP of SAH. The difference in the experimentally and
theoretically obtained values of thermal efficiencies was found to be in
the range from 7.18 to 9.83. Khawajah et al. [33] have evaluated the
SAHD with fins and wire mesh attached to the absorber plate for ab­
sorption of heat. During experimentation MFR was varied from 0.0121
kg/s to 0.042 kg/s. The number of fins and MFR were optimized based
on the ηth . Maximum efficiency of 85.9% has been obtained using 6 fins.
Results showed high efficiency of counter flow configuration of SAH as
compared to conventional type SAH. Ghiami and Ghiami [34] have
examined the TP of SAH with paraffin wax as a thermal energy storage
(TES) medium. Two kinds of SAH configurations have been used, with
baffles and without baffles. Comparisons between both configurations
have made on the basis of exergy and thermal efficiencies. The TP of
SAH with baffles is found to be better than SAH without baffles. Baig and
Ali [35] have enhanced the TP of SAH by using four different configu­
rations. They have used paraffin wax as TES medium and aluminium
foam as a porous medium to enhance the TP of SAH. Hasan and Abo-
Alfadl [36] have investigated SAHD with a flat plate, finned, corru­
gated finned and perforated finned type of absorber plates. The SAHD
have two inlet ports and a single outlet port for the entry of air into the
channel. They have obtained maximum ηth of 83% for SAH with
corrugated perforated pin finned configuration. Prasad et al. [37] have
investigated the SAHD in which wire mesh was used as a porous me­
dium. They have obtained enhancement up to 89% in the ηth of SAH. The
authors in the studies [38-56] have incorporated various techniques for
the thermal enhancement of SAH and solar water heater.
R. Kumar et al.
From the above-discussed studies on the SAHD and different heat
transfer enhancement methods, it can be concluded that limited studies
are available on SAHD with porous mediums in the air passage channel.
The studies show the augmentation in the performance of SAHD as
compared to single-pass SAH. Limited studies have utilized porous ma­
terials such as aluminium wool, foam aluminium, finned wire mesh etc.
for the performance enhancement of SAHD. The comparative in­
vestigations on SAHD, with and without porous mediums are also
limited. To the best of authors’ knowledge, SAHD with stone pebbles,
mild steel and aluminium chips on absorber plate as sensible heat
storage medium have been used the first time to augment the heat
transfer. The novelty and originality of work lie in the fact that cheap
and easily available porous materials such as stone pebbles, chips of
mild steel and aluminium which are almost priceless, are placed on the
absorber plate for performance enhancement. In the present study, an
experimental investigation of SAHD with different porous materials on
the absorber plate is presented. A comparative study on the influence of
porous materials as TES medium on the performance of SAHD is carried
out. The double-pass configuration and porous material as TES are used
to overcome the problem of the low efficiency of SAH. The present work
involves the determination of air temperature at the entrance and exit,
ηth , pressure drop and ηthe . The current examination aimed to determine
the influence of different porous materials used as energy storage on the
TP of SAHD and hence to identify the material having high potential for
heat transfer augmentation.
Experimental set up and procedure
Experiment set up
An experimental setup is fabricated to analyse the impact of the
porous medium on the TP of SAHD. The schematic arrangement of the
setup used in this examination is illustrated in Fig. 1. The setup has two
air passages; 1st passage is formed between top glass covers and 2nd
Fig. 1. Schematic arrangement of experimental setup.
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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 48 (2021) 101673
passage is formed among the second glass cover and the absorber plate.
The setup has a porous medium on the absorber plate to augment the
convective heat transfer (CHT) from the absorber plate to the fluid. The
first passage ensures maximum extraction of heat from the most exposed
part of SAH to lessen the heat losses to the surroundings. The experiment
has been conducted with three porous mediums i.e. stone pebbles, mild
steel chips and aluminium chips. The channel has a length of 1.32 m and
a width of 0.34 m. The depth of each channel is 0.024 m. The experi­
mental setup is south faced and fixed at 30◦ to the horizontal. The col­
lector plates for all three porous materials are 3 mm thick and are made
up of aluminium sheet which is blackened with black paint. The soft­
wood of 6 mm thickness has been placed below the absorber plate to
provide insulation from the bottom of the channel. Below the 6 mm
softwood there is 25 mm thick glass wool which is followed by 12 mm
softwood. A glass cover of 4 mm thickness is fitted above the absorber
plate. Another transparent glass cover is placed above the second glass
cover. The glass covers are fixed with help of batons to sidewalls as
shown in Fig. 2(a). At the end of the entry channel, there is U shaped
section which is made up of an aluminium sheet. The necessary ar­
rangements are made for the insulation of this section to avoid heat
losses. Sides of double pass channels have been insulated with the help
of 25 mm thick wood to avoid heat losses. The entire airflow channels
are mounted on a mild steel frame. All the dimensions have been
decided on the basis of the ASHRAE Standard. A perforated plate of 1
mm thick aluminium has been used in a direction perpendicular to the
airflow. This plate provides proper flow of air ensuring heat transfer in
the direction of airflow. At the end of the exit section, there is a cen­
trifugal blower which is connected by G.I. pipe. The blower has the
capacity of 2.2 kW (2.0 h.p.) and sucks air into the channel through inlet
section of the SAH as described in Fig. 2b. Calibrated orifice meter
measures the MFR through the channels. Copper-constantan thermo­
couples measure temperatures of collector plate and porous medium at
different locations. Manometer, anemometer and pyranometer are used
to measure Pressure drop, velocity and solar intensity respectively. The
R. Kumar et al.
Fig. 2a. Pictorial view of experimental setup.
Fig. 2b. Pictorial view of centrifugal blower.
air temperatures at the inlet and outlet section, heat gain, ηth , pressure
drop and ηthe performance of SAHD is computed. The schematic
arrangement of the side view and front view of experimental set up are
shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 respectively..
Experimental Procedure/Methodology
Different parameters are recorded from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM while
performing the experiments. A layer of 1 cm thickness of porous me­
diums i.e stone pebbles, mild steel and aluminium are used on the
absorber plate of SAHD. The MFR is altered from 0.005 kg/s to 0.030 kg/
s in steps of 0.005 kg/s during experimentation. Solar intensity is
measured with a pyranometer at a frequency of 1 h during experimen­
tation. The orifice meters which measure the MFR through the channels
are calibrated prior to experimentation. Thermocouples are used to
measure the temperatures of collector plate and porous mediums at
different locations. Mean calculated temperature is used in the calcu­
lations. A high-capacity blower is used to suck the air into the channel
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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 48 (2021) 101673
through the inlet section of SAHD. The following data is recorded for 1
cm layer of each porous medium at different MFR at an interval of 1 h
starting from 9 am up to 5 pm;
1. Intensity of solar radiations
2. Inlet and outlet air temperature (Ti and To)
3. Pressure drop
4. Velocity
Porous medium assisted SAHD
The solar energy falling on the earth’s surface is dependent on
various factors and climate conditions. The average value of solar in­
tensity is 1000 W/m2. The conversion of solar energy into thermal en­
ergy and its utilization is not always coincident. To overcome this
discrepancy efficient TES mediums are needed. Provision of TES me­
dium in the channel of SAH might be a suitable method for thermal
enhancement characteristics. Porous media in the flow channel of a SAH
enhance the mixing of the air stream and increase the heat transfer area.
The porous media put into the flow channel of the SAH provides
conductive heat transfer to the air. Porous medium not only provides
greater heat transfer area but also act as artificial roughness. Most of the
heat that is trapped between two glass covers is absorbed by the air and
heat loss to the surroundings becomes feeble. In conventional SAHD,
absorber plate acts as heat transfer medium only, so losses to the sur­
roundings are more as compared to the present setup where artificial
roughness or porous medium is used. The air flowing in the inlet section
first passes through the glass cover channel and then passes through the
porous medium. This raises the CHT between air and porous medium by
providing a large heat transfer area. The temperature of the absorber
plate also decreased due to the heat exchange between the absorber
plate and porous medium. Inlet and outlet sections provide sufficient
length for developing the airflow in both channels.
The different porous mediums, which have been used in past studies,
include aluminium wool, foam aluminium, finned wire mesh and steel
wire mesh etc. [35,57-60]. Sözen et al. [57] have found that aluminium
wool inside solar dryer enhance its thermal performance and causes a
30% reduction in drying time. Baig et al. [35] have explored the per­
formance of the SAHD integrated with foam aluminium as a TSM. The
authors have found that the use of aluminium foam as TES improve the
performance of SAH but also cause a slight reduction in storage capacity
of the paraffin wax. Singh et al. [58] have investigated a SAHD with
finned wire mesh and obtained thermal efficiency and thermohydraulic
efficiency of 93% and 80% respectively. El-khawajah et al. [59] have
obtained 85.9% efficiency using fins on the SAHD incorporated with
wire mesh. Omojaro et al. [60] have obtained an appreciable increment
in performance of SAHD assimilated with fins and steel wire mesh. In the
present work aluminium chips, stones and mild steel have been used on
the absorber plate to provide conductive heat transfer to the air. These
porous materials are easily available and cheap. The heat energy extri­
cated by the flowing air in the 1st pass lead to a reduction in the tem­
perature of glass covers causing a lowering of heat losses to the
surroundings. The double pass and presence of porous medium lead to
higher TP of SAHD as compared to single- pass SAH.
Performance parameters
Thermal and thermohydraulic efficiencies are used to measure the
TP of SAHD. The experimental data in form of solar radiation intensity,
Inlet and exit air temperature, heat gain, ηth , thermohydraulic efficiency
and pressure drop at different MFR for three porous materials is noted.
In this study, the temperature of porous medium is calculated by the
arithmetic mean of different temperatures measured with the help of
thermocouples. Output parameters for this study are thermal heat gain,
ηth and thermohydraulic efficiency.
Thermal heat gain, Qt is calculated as
R. Kumar et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 48 (2021) 101673

Fig. 3. Schematic side view of experimental setup. (1) Glass Covers (2) Absorber Plate (3) Porous Medium (4) U-Shaped section (5) Soft wood, (6) Glass wool, (7)
Pressure Taps.

Fig. 4. Front view of experimental setup.

Qt = mCp (To − Ti ) (1)

(Qt − Pfan )
ηthe = (3)
where m is the MFR of air equal to ρAV, Cp is the specific heat of air, To is Ac I
outlet temperature of the air and Ti is inlet temperature of the air, ρis
where Pfan of fan.
density, A is the area of cross-section and Vis the velocity of air.
Energy used for sucking the air into the channel is taken into
Thermal efficiency, ηth of SAHD is calculated as:
consideration while calculating the thermohydraulic efficiency. Fan
Qt mCp (T0 − Ti ) power/Pumping Power (PP) is calculated as:
ηth = = (2)
IAc IAc Pflow
Pfan = (4)
where I is the solar intensity of radiation and Ac is the area of collector
ηfan × ηmotor
plate.
Here, Pfan is the power of the fan, Pflow is the force required to suck the air
The thermohydraulic efficiency ηthe is calculated using the following
into the channel, ηfan is the efficiency of fan which is assumed to be 70%.
formula:
ηmotor is the efficiency of the electric motor which is assumed to be 90%.

5
R. Kumar et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 48 (2021) 101673

mΔP
Pflow = (5)
ρ

where, ΔP is pressure drop across the channel of SAHD.

While utilizing porous material for heat transfer enhancement, the
penalty due to enhanced pressure drop must be considered. The opti­
mum medium must have high a heat transfer rate and a low mechanical
PP. The criteria of thermal efficiency do not meet such requirements
because of the non-consideration of the pumping power losses. So, in the
selection of an optimum medium, the criteria of thermohydraulic effi­
ciency must be utilized. This criterion gives the exact useful energy gain
by considering the energy utilized in pumping the air through the
channel. The pumping power of the fan/blower for SAHD with the
porous medium is calculated using eqn.7. The uncertainty analysis of
performance parameters is presented in the Appendix-A.1 and the range
of uncertainties in different performance parameters is listed in
Table A1.
Fig. 5. Solar radiation intensity at distinct MFR for stone pebbles.
Results and discussion
Another factor that lessens the heat losses to surroundings is the
The dominant drawback of single-pass SAH is that it allows air to presence of stagnating air between glass covers. The highest tempera­
flow only once through the channel. Due to this the residential time ture of absorber plate and porous media obtained are 65 ◦ C and 54 ◦ C
(RET) of the air is less in the channel. RET of the air in the SAH with respectively. All the optimum values are obtained in the middle of the
double pass configuration is more and the air is heated to its full ca­ day when the intensity of solar radiation is highest. Fig. 6. shows the Ti
pacity. In the present investigation, the porous medium in the form of and To for the various MFR considered in the investigation. The Ti rises
chips is added which occupy only the base of the second channel and not slightly with time and after the middle of the day it becomes almost
the entire volume of this channel. Solar radiations are absorbed by the constant. The maximum value of 36 ◦ C is attained for To at MFR = 0.015
different layers of porous medium. This absorption phenomenon is kg/s. Fig. 7 depicts heat gain by the SAH at distinct MFR. The maximum
partial volumetric because of the partially filled channel (channel is not heat gain of 250 W is attained at the MFR of 0.03 kg/s.
filled fully with porous medium). Further, in this setup counter-flow The maximum ηth obtained for stone pebbles is 64% at MFR of 0.03
arrangement gives an advantage of the reduction in heat losses from kg/s. Apart from acting as a sensible energy storage medium, these chips
the glass covers. The enhanced heat transfer required a fully developed also provide turbulence leading to escalated heat transfer between the
stream at the inlet of 1st and 2nd channels. The experiment is performed absorber plate and chips. So the temperature of the absorber plate de­
with three porous materials at MFR varying from 0.005 kg/s to 0.03 kg/ creases and an appreciable decrease in thermal losses to the surround­
s. ings is observed. Hence thermal efficiency of SAHD with porous media is
high as compared to conventional SAHD. The thermal efficiency of
SAHD at different MFR is shown in the Fig. 8.
Experimental results for stone pebbles To achieve the actual thermal performance of SAHD, the pumping
power of the blower required to suck air must be taken into account. The
A layer of 1 cm thickness of stone pebbles is used on the absorber pumping power of blower is calculated using the mass flow rate and
plate of SAHD. The intensity of solar radiations at different mass flow pressure drop data using equation 7. Fig. 9 shows the pressure drop
rates is taken at an interval of 1 h starting from 9 am up to 5 pm in the across the channel of SAHD at distinct MFR. The maximum pressure
evening as shown in Fig. 5. The highest solar radiation intensity (Imax) drop of 340 Pa is obtained at MFR of 0.03 kg/s. The pumping power
obtained is 790 W/m2 which is in the middle of the day. At all MFR the required to suck air into the duct is depicted in the Fig. 10.
temperature of the lower glass cover is found to be higher than that of
upper glass cover. The RET of the fluid in the heater chamber influences
the heat extraction leading to higher heat extraction at low MFR.
Because of the more RET at low MFR, the temperature of lower glass
cover got the highest value at 0.015 kg/s. The reason behind the low
temperature of the upper glass cover is CHT between the upper glass
cover and atmospheric air. The velocity of air passing through the
channel is an important factor for CHT between glass cover and atmo­
sphere. The major losses that occur to the surroundings are attributed to
the large temperature change among the lower and upper sides of the
glass cover.

Table A1
Range of uncertainties in performance parameters.
Sr. No. Parameter’s description Symbols Uncertainty error (%)

1. Mass flow rate m 1.892–3.313

2. Heat Gain Qt 1.92–3.351
3. Thermal efficiency ηth 2.02–3.42
4 Pressure Drop ΔP 0.02–1
5 Pumping Power Pflow /Pfan 1.89–3.46
6. Thermohydraulic efficiency ηthe 2.77–4.86
Fig. 6. Ti and To air temperature at distinct MFR for stone pebbles.

6
R. Kumar et al.
Fig. 7. Heat gain at distinct MFR for stone pebbles.
Fig. 8. Thermal efficiency of SAHD at distinct MFR for stone pebbles.
Fig. 9. Pressure drop of SAHD at distinct MFR for stone pebbles.
The ηthe is a better illustration of the authentic performance of SAHD
which takes thermal as well as fluid stream aspects into consideration.
At high-temperature difference between inlet and outlet, ηth and the ηthe
are almost equal but differ by an appreciable amount at lower values.
The ηthe of SAHD at different MFR is shown the Fig. 11. A comparison of
ηth and ηthe of SAHD for stone pebbles is shown in the Fig. 12.
The thermal efficiency ηth rises with rise in the MFR as shown in
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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 48 (2021) 101673
Fig. 10. Pumping Power of SAHD at distinct MFR for stone pebbles.
Fig. 11. Thermohydraulic Efficiency at distinct MFRs for stone pebbles.
Fig. 12. Maximum thermal efficiency and thermohydraulic efficiency at
distinct MFR for stone pebbles.
Fig. 12. The maximum value of ηthe for stone pebbles is found out to be
60% at MFR of 0.025 kg/s. The ηthe increases with increase in MFR. This
increase is continuous up to MFR of 0.025 kg/s but after that it de­
creases. The reason for decrease in ηthe is the requirement of high
pumping power of air blower at high mass flow rate.
R. Kumar et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 48 (2021) 101673

Experimental findings for mild steel

The second material used for experimental in the present work is

mild steel. Fig. 13 shows the intensity of solar radiations at distinct MFR
recorded at an interval of 1 h starting from 9 am morning to 5 pm in the
evening. The Imax measured while using mild steel chips as the porous
medium is 880 W/m2.
Figure 14 shows the Ti and To of SAHD for mild steel at various MFR.
The Ti goes up slightly with time and after the middle of day it remains
almost constant. The highest value of 39 C of exit air temperature is
◦

attained for mild steel at MFR of 0.015 kg/s. The heat gain obtained for
SAHD at various MFR is shown in the Fig. 15. Maximum heat gain of
280 W is achieved at MFR of 0.03 kg/s. The surface of mild steel chips in
the lower channel acts as artificial roughness which increases the CHT
between chips and the air.
The thermal efficiency of SAHD with mild steel is calculated and
plotted in Fig. 16. Highest ηth of 69.5% is achieved at MFR of 0.03 kg/s
for mild steel as energy storage medium.
Fig. 14. Inlet and outlet air temperature at distinct MFR for mild steel.
As the power required to suck air into the channel is not taken into
account in the determination of ηth . So to compute the actual efficiency
(thermohydraulic efficiency) the pumping power of blower must be
considered. Fig. 17 shows the pressure drop across the SAHD with mild
steel on the absorber plate. The maximum pressure drop of 370 Pa is
measured at MFR of 0.03 kg/s. The pumping power required go suck the
air is plotted in the Fig. 18.
Thermohydraulic efficiency of SAHD with mild steel which take into
account the required pumping power is calculated and plotted in Fig. 19.
Thermohydraulic efficiency first increase with increase in MFR, then at
MFR of 0.025 kg/s it attains the uppermost value of 65% and decreases
thereafter. The decrease in the Thermohydraulic efficiency at high MFR
is due to high pumping power needed to push the air into the chamber.
The comparison of ηth and ηthe for SAHD with mild steel is shown in the
Fig. 20.

Experimental results for aluminium

The third material used in experimentation is aluminium. The in­

tensity of solar radiations at different MFR is noted at an interval of 1 h
from 9 am to 5 pm and is shown in the Fig. 21. The Imax measured using
aluminium chips as the porous medium is 860 W/m2. Fig. 22 shows the Fig. 15. Heat gain at various MFR for mild steel.
Ti and To for different values of MFR. The inlet air temperature increases
slightly with time and after the middle of day it remains almost constant.
The maximum exit air temperature achieved for aluminium chips is
51 ◦ C at MFR of 0.015 kg/s. The maximum heat gain of 331 W is attained
at MFR of 0.03 kg/s as shown in the Fig. 23. The aluminium chips

Fig. 16. Thermal efficiency at various MFR for mild steel.

surface in the lower channel also acts as artificial roughness which in­
creases the CHT between chips and air flowing in the channel.
Chips provide turbulence in the air enhancing CHT between the
absorber plate and the aluminium chips. The enhanced CHT cause a fall
in the temperature of absorber plate and in the thermal losses to the
Fig. 13. Solar radiation intensity at distinct MFR for mild steel.

8
R. Kumar et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 48 (2021) 101673

Fig. 17. Pressure drop of SAHD at various MFR for mild steel.

Fig. 20. Maximum thermal and thermohydraulic efficiencies at distinct MFRs

for mild steel.

Fig. 18. Pumping Power of SAHD at distinct MFR for mild steel.

Fig. 21. Solar radiation intensity at distinct MFR for aluminium chips.

Fig. 19. Thermohydraulic Efficiency at various MFR for mild steel.

surroundings. Due to this reason, the ηth of SAHD with porous media is
high. The ηth of SAHD with aluminium chips is shown in Fig. 24. The
highest ηth of 84% for SAHD with aluminium chips is obtained at MFR of
0.03 kg/s.
Fig. 22. Inlet and outlet air temperature at distinct MFR s for aluminium chips.
The pressure drop across SAHD at different MFR is shown in the
Fig. 25. The maximum pressure drop of 360 Pa is measured at MFR of
different MFR is depicted in Fig. 27. The ηthe first increase with increase
0.03 kg/s. The pumping power required to suck air into duct is calcu­
in MFR, then at 0.025 kg/s it attains the maximum value of 74% and
lated and shown in the Fig. 26.
after that decrease due to high value of required pumping power to push
The thermohydraulic efficiency of SAHD with aluminium chips at
the air into chamber. In the Fig. 28 ηth and ηthe of SAHD with aluminium

9
R. Kumar et al.
Fig. 23. Heat gain at various MFR for aluminium chips.
Fig. 24. Thermal efficiency at various MFR for aluminium chips.
Fig. 25. Pressure drop of SAHD at various MFR for aluminium chips.
chips at different MFR are compared. The findings reveal that ηth of the
solar heater rises with rise in MFR but thermohydraulic efficiency de­
creases after MFR of 0.025 kg/s due to high pumping power needed to
suck air into the channel.
The results obtained for three porous mediums show that aluminium
chips have highest ηth amongst the three mediums considered in the
10
Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 48 (2021) 101673
Fig. 26. Pumping Power of SAHD at various MFR for aluminium chips.
Fig. 27. Thermohydraulic efficiency for aluminium at various MFR.
Fig. 28. Maximum thermal and thermohydraulic efficiencies at distinct MFR
for aluminium.
investigation. The highest ηth in case of aluminium chips is due to its
high thermal conductivity as compared to mild steel and stone pebbles.
The peak value of ηth for stone pebbles, mild steel and aluminium are
56%, 69.5% and 84% respectively. Thermohydraulic efficiency for stone
pebbles, mild steel and aluminium are 60%, 65% and 74% respectively.
R. Kumar et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 48 (2021) 101673

at distinct MFR. The findings show that SAHD with porous materials has
higher output air temperature, higher pressure drop, high heat gain,
high thermal and thermohydraulic efficiency as compared to conven­
tional SAHD. The TP of SAHD with porous material and without porous
material is compared at MFR of 0.005 kg/s. The major findings of the
investigations are as follows:

• Porous material in the second passage of SAHD augments the heat

transfer area and thus increases heat gain, ηth and ηthe .
• The maximum heat gains of 250 W, 280 W and 331 W are obtained at
MFR of 0.03 kg/s with stone pebbles, mild steel and aluminium chips
respectively.
• The maximum ηth of 65%, 69.5% & 84% are obtained at MFR of 0.03
kg/s with stone pebbles, mild steel and aluminium chips
respectively.
• The maximum ηthe of 60%, 65% & 74% are obtained at MFR of 0.025
kg/s with stone pebbles, mild steel and aluminium chips
respectively.
• The thermal efficiency of SAHD with porous mediums is 33% greater
than that of SAHD without porous mediums at MFR of 0.005 kg/s
Fig. 29. Thermal Efficiency of stone pebbles, mild steel and aluminium chips at
distinct MFR.
• The thermohydraulic efficiency of SAHD with porous mediums is
28% greater than that of SAHD without porous material at MFR of
0.005 kg/s

Fig. 30. Thermohydraulic Efficiency of stone pebbles, mild steel and
aluminium chips at distinct MFR.
The thermal and thermohydraulic efficiency for stone pebbles, mild steel
are shown in Fig. 29 and Fig. 30 respectively.
The findings show that SAHD with the porous medium in its second
chamber is an efficient design to increase the TP. The introduction of
double-channel increases the thermal performance significantly because
of an increase in flow area almost as twice as single pass SAH. Porous
medium provided in the lower channel increase the volumetric heat
transfer coefficient. Thermohydraulic efficiency decreases after MFR of
0.025 kg/s due high pumping power needed to push air into the channel
at high MFR. The required fan power is very small in comparison to
useful energy gain obtained from SAHD. Out of the three materials used
in experimentation, aluminium is found to have maximum influence on
the performance of SAHD. Such innovative designs can be used in
heating applications where thermal energy is required at reasonable
cost. Further this work can be extended by using different types of
artificial roughness in the double-pass configuration of SAH. A para­
metric investigation for the selection of efficient design of roughened
absorber plate can be carried out. As the setup used in the present
investigation is an outdoor setup, so experimentation is limited to only
those days when proper sunshine was observed from 9 am to 5 pm. The
impact of different weather conditions, wind velocity, moisture content
of air is not incorporated in the present study which can be explored in
future studies.

Conclusions Declaration of Competing Interest

An experimental examination is performed to reveal the impact of The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
various porous mediums on the performance of SAHD at different MFR. interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
The inlet and outlet air temperature, heat gain, ηth and ηthe are computed the work reported in this paper.

Appendix

A.1: Uncertainty analysis of performance parameters

The experimental uncertainties are computed using the techniques discussed in the studies[61]. In general for a experimental result ‘K’ which is
function of variables ‘xi ’, the experimental uncertainty is
[( )2 ( )2 ( )2 ( )2 ]1/2
δK 1 ∂K 1 ∂K 1 ∂K 1 ∂K
= × δx1 + × δx2 + × δx3 + ⋯⋯ + × δxn
K K ∂x1 K ∂x2 K ∂x3 K ∂xn

where K = f(x1 ,x2 ,x3 ,x4 ,x5 ,x6 ,⋯⋯.)where, δx1 , δx2 , δx3 ⋯⋯⋯.., δxn represents probable errors during x1 , x2 , x3 ⋯⋯⋯, xn measurements. Moreover,δK

11
R. Kumar et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 48 (2021) 101673

is expressed as absolute uncertainty and δKK is represented as relative uncertainty. Uncertainties in different measured quantities are as follows:
Uncertainty in heat gain, Qt is represented as
[ ]
δQt (δm)2 (δ(ΔT))2 1/2
= +
Qt m ΔT

where δm
m is uncertainty in mass flow rate and given by
[( ) ( )2 ]1/2
2
δm δV δA
= +
m V A

Uncertainty in Thermal efficiency, ηth of SAHD is represented as

[( ) ( )2 ( )2 ]1/2
2
δηth δQt δI δAc
= + +
ηth Qt I Ac

The uncertainty in thermohydraulic efficiency ηthe is calculated using following formula:

[( ) ( )2 ( )2 ( )2 ]1/2
2
δηthe δQt δI δAc δPfan
= + + +
ηthe Qt I Ac Pfan

The uncertainty in the power of fan

[( )2 ]1/2
δPfan δPflow
=
Pfan Pflow

where uncertainty in Pflow is given as

[ ]
δPflow (δm)2 (δΔP)2 1/2
= +
Pflow m ΔP

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