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Investigation on heat transfer enhancement of conventional and staggered

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Article in Environmental Science and Pollution Research · September 2020

DOI: 10.1007/s11356-019-07561-1

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Environmental Science and Pollution Research
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-07561-1

RENEWABLE ENERGY AND WATER SUSTAINABILITY

Investigation on heat transfer enhancement of conventional

and staggered fin solar air heater coated with CNT-black
paint—an experimental approach
Balasubramanian Madhu 1 & Abd Elnaby Kabeel 2 & Ravishankar Sathyamurthy 2,3 & Swellam Wafa Sharshir 4 &
Athikesavan Muthu Manokar 5 & Pala Raviramachandran Raghavendran 3 & Thimmaiah Chandrashekar 6 &
Devarajan Mageshbabu 1

Received: 25 September 2019 / Accepted: 29 December 2019

# Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
The present study aims at a detailed experimental study of a passive-type solar air heater (SAH) on the effect of coating the
absorber plate with higher thermal conductive black paint under forced circulation method and studied under the climatic
conditions of Chennai. Furthermore, to enhance the thermal performance index of conventional SAH, additional enhancement
such as coating and staggered fins are fixed to the absorber plate of duct which simultaneously increases the turbulent intensity,
kinetic energy to enhance the temperature of outlet air. Comparisons are made with a solar air heater without coating and
staggered fin in order to assess the thermal performance. Experiments were conducted on a continuous basis and the flow rates
of air flowing through the duct are varied. Experimental results revealed that the effect of coating improved the plate temperature
to a maximum of 102 °C while the modified SAH coated with ordinary black paint and staggered fin arrangement is found as
95 °C for the flow rate of mf = 0.03 kg/s. The difference in temperature between exit and inlet of conventional SAH with coating
alone is found as 13.09 °C at a flow rate of mf = 0.03 kg/s whereas the average thermal efficiency is found as 22.3%. Similarly,
increasing the mass flow rate from 0.13 to 0.22 kg/s has no significant improvement in average daily thermal efficiency, whereas
the temperature difference decreases. The coating of absorber plate with higher thermal conductivity paint and increased
turbulence created between the duct by using staggered fin improved the temperature of exit air by 63, 64, 38 and 35% for air
flow rates of 0.03, 0.04, 0.13 and 0.22 kg/s respectively. On a flat absorber with coating, the average increase in temperature is
found at 6.3% compared to that of SAH coated with ordinary black paint. The hourly thermal efficiency of the conventional type
SAH with coating exhibited an enhancement of about 5% in thermal efficiency as compared to that of conventional type with
black paint coating alone for the same climatic condition, whereas the thermal efficiency of staggered fin SAH with coating alone
is enhanced by 7.5%. With staggered fin arrangement in the absorber plate, heat absorption by the air is increased with CNT-
coated absorber and excessive turbulence produced by the fins enhanced the average temperature difference from 13.5 to 20.3 °C.
The cost per unit kW of conventional type SAH with CNT-doped black paint reduced from 0.01754 $ to 0.00832 $/kW while
varying the flow rate from 0.031 to 0.22 kg/s.

Keywords Carbon nanotubes . Air heater . Daily efficiency . Temperature difference

Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

* Ravishankar Sathyamurthy
raviannauniv23@gmail.com; ravishankars05@outlook.com
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Velammal Institute of
Technology, Chennai 601204, Tamil Nadu, India
2
Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering,
Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt
3
Department of Automobile Engineering, Hindustan Institute of
technology and Science, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 603103, India
4
Mechanical Engineering Department, Kafrelshiekh University, Kafr
Elsheikh, Egypt
5
Department of Mechanical Engineering, B.S. Abdur Rahman
Crescent Institute of Science and Technology, Vandalur,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600048, India
6
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajarajeswari Engineering
College, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560074, India
 Environ Sci Pollut Res

Nomenclature is stored in the absorber and through convection (either natural

ma Mass flow rate of air, (kg/s) or forced) the heat energy stored in the plate is transferred to
Cp,a Specific heat capacity of air, (J/kg K) the air flowing through the duct. The temperature of exit air
To Outlet temperature, (°C) through the collector is augmented using phase change mate-
Ti Inlet temperature, (°C) rials, coating techniques, increasing the number of pass (sin-
αb Absorptivity of basin gle/double pass), sensible heat storage material, artificial
Ua Air velocity, (m/s) roughness, turbulators, double and single glazing and air im-
Qab Useful energy, (W) pingement. Aiming to enhance solar air heaters (SAHs) per-
Qu Useful energy, (W) formance, artificial surface geometry, artificial roughness and
Uc Bottom heat transfer coefficient, (W/m2K) attaching fins and baffles have been utilized as they have many
Qab Absorbed heat energy, (W) features such as increasing turbulence of air flow, providing
Tamb Ambient temperature, (°C) well-distributed flow eliminating dead zones and increasing
Pamb Ambient pressure, (bar) heat transfer area (El-Sebaii and Al-Snani 2010). Abuşka
I(t) Amount of solar intensity falling on the collector area, (2018) conducted an experimental comparative study between
(W/m2) the conical surface and flat plate single-pass SAHs. The pres-
Ac Area of collector, (m2) ence of conical surface provided the aforementioned merits;
Tg Cover temperature, (°C) hence, it augmented thermal efficiency by an increase over flat
Tp Absorber plate temperature, (°C) plate one reaching 10.6% at 0.1 kg/s.
Ta Ambient temperature, (°C) Besides, parametric studies have been conducted in many
Ag Area, (m2) types of fins such as wavy or corrugated, longitudinal or rect-
τ Transmissivity angular, elliptical or cylindrical and triangular fins. The influ-
η Efficiency, (%) ence of amplitude and wavelength on a wavy-finned SAH
SAH Solar air heater performance was analytically investigated by Priyam and
PCM Phase change material Chand (2018). Both thermal and thermohydraulic efficiencies
varied inversely with wavelength through the entire range of
flow rates at constant amplitude value. Whereas, at constant
Introduction wavelength, thermal efficiency was continuously increased
proportionally to amplitude; but, on the contrary,
Energy from the sun is widely used in various applications as thermohydraulic efficiency increased till certain mass flow
the conversion of solar energy is appeared to be an environ- rate, exactly 0.06 kg/s, then decreased beyond it. The maxi-
mental friendly cheap energy source which is available mum thermal and effective efficiencies of 78.6 and 73.2%
throughout the year. In the Indian energy scenario, nearly 7% were obtained at 2.5 cm amplitude. Their maximum values
of solar energy is used for producing electricity by installing were 78.8 and 74.1%, respectively, at 3 cm wavelength.
photovoltaic panels on the rooftop, and the Government of Parthasarathy and Pambudi (2019) investigated the perfor-
India is providing subsidies to increase the installation of solar mance of solar chimney air heater under five different struc-
panels for cleaner energy production. Solar energy is widely tural modifications to evaluate the effect of glazing, corrugat-
used for photovoltaic energy production, solar water heating ed fins and convection either natural or forced. The utilization
and solar cooking purposes as commercialized products. The of glazing improved the efficiency by 35.35% in forced con-
other major thermal equipment’s that uses solar energy are vection mode. Moreover, glazed-finned designs were more
solar drying (Soodmand-Moghaddam et al. 2019; Abhay efficient than that is without fins by 40.01 and 34.92% for
et al. 2018), water heating system (Barbosa et al. 2019; Faure natural and forced convection, respectively. As expected,
et al. 2019; Kabeel et al. 2019a, 2019; Labed et al. 2016), forced convention proved efficient performance than natural
desalination (Kabeel et al. 2019; Yousef and Hassan 2019), convection. To sum up, glazed-finned heater operated at
refrigeration, air conditioning system, humidification de- forced convection had the highest efficiency of 16.50%.
humidification (Santosh et al. 2019), solar air heater (El Similarly, to experiment with the effect of glazing and
Khadraoui et al. 2017; Esen et al. 2009, 2009a; Kumar & attaching fins on SAHs performance, Kabeel et al. (2019b)
Layek 2019), vacuum tube solar air collector (Zhu et al. experimented the effect of utilizing a glazed entrance region
2017), solar type waste heat recovery (Nwosu 2017), etc. with guide blades on the performance of flat-plate single-pass
Solar air heater uses both natural and forced convection tech- SAH. The aim of glazing entrance region was increasing the
nique. Solar air heater uses a simple principle of operation area exposed to solar radiation to be involved as heating area
which forces the air through the duct naturally or by forcing instead of being steel-covered and separated from the SAH
it with the help of an electrical blower. The solar intensity absorber. Moreover, guide blades were fixed in that region
which penetrates through the transparent glass and the energy to ensure good air distribution. The glazed-bladed SAH
Environ Sci Pollut Res
showed good improvement in the daily thermal efficiency by
6.72–10.5% over unmodified heater and by 2.16–3.25% over
the glazed, without blades, SAH. In contrary to expectation,
heat transfer is not always enhanced proportional to fins depth
because of shadow existence which lowered performance by
10% and 20% than case of neglecting shadow for rectangular
and triangular fins, respectively, according to a CFD model
conducted by Hosseini et al. (2019). The model aimed to
determine the shadow effect of different fins shapes, rectan-
gular, elliptical and triangular, and inclination angles on SAH
performance compared to its behavior ignoring shadow and
other without fins. Also, the higher the inclination angles, the
lower the finned SAH performance till un-finned one become
better. Fins depth of 0.025 m was recommended.
Using baffled or baffled-finned absorbers proved a good
enhancement in the thermal performance of SAHs. According
to the study made by Kabeel et al. (2018a), the daily thermal
efficiency increased proportional to the baffles numbers. From
their results, the maximum achieved thermal efficiency
reached 83.8% in the case of using 800 baffles attached to
the finned absorber while the maximum daily efficiency of
the conventional SAH was 32.12% at the same flow rate of
0.04 kg/s. The advantage of baffled SAH over non-baffled one
was also ensured by Bayrak et al. (2013). Unfortunately, al-
though further increasing of baffles parameters (dimensions)
and further decreasing of the in-between distance leads to
more enhancement in the thermal performance, more pump
work was required and hence the thermohydraulic efficiency
decreases (Mohammadi and Sabzpooshani 2013). Ghiami and
Ghiami (2018) concluded that using sequence-arranged baf-
fle-equipped SAH acquired energy efficiency of 26.73% com-
pared to 14.3% in the case of unequipped SAH.
To be applicable for late-hours of the day, thermal storage
has been one of the main considerations in improving the
SAHs perfomance. The most common type of thermal storage
materials is phase change materials (PCMs). Salih et al. (2019)
studied experimentally and analytically the influence of solar
radiation intensity and air mass flow on the performance of
double-pass SAH with rectangular capsules filled containing
paraffin wax as PCM. As a result, increasing flow rate had
negative effect on melting temperatue, melting time and freez-
ing time. On the other hand, the higher the solar intensity, the
higher the melting point of wax in short time. The highest
optimal discharging period and the air temperature rise
reached 3 h with (17.95–3) °C at 825 W/m2 and 0.6 kg/min.
Kabeel et al. (2018) optimized the height of the fin and made
an experimental analysis on a SAH with glazed and multi-
bladed guided vane entrance to distribute the air evenly in
the duct. Longitudinal fins with a height of 3, 5 and 8 cm were
used in the absorber, while the rate of air flowing through the
duct was varied from 0.013 to 0.04 kg/s. Two identical solar
air heater (conventional SAH and SAH with longitudinal fins)
were used in their study to compare the thermal performance
of SAH. The effect of blades in the entrance enhanced the exit
temperature of air, as the air is distributed throughout the en-
tire absorber plate and duct. Similarly, the daily efficiency of
the solar air heater increases with an increased mass flow rate
of air, whereas the daily difference in temperature between
exit and inlet decreases with increased mass flow rate. The
optimized fin height was found to be 8 cm. Also, it was con-
cluded that the blades at the entry section enhanced the daily
efficiency of SAH up to 10 to 14%. The highest daily efficien-
cy was 57% at 0.04 kg/s with fins’ height of 8 cm compared to
32% in case of unmodified flat-plate SAH. Abdullah et al.
(2018) made a performance analysis over a novel SAH using
turbulators in double-pass mode and compared over with a
conventional SAH. Three different cases namely (i) conven-
tional SAH, (ii) SAH with turbulators (inline) and (iii) SAH
with turbulators arranged in staggered. Additionally, to in-
crease the thermal performance in DPSAH, the turbulators
(aluminium cans) were arranged in both top as well as bottom
of absorber. In addition, guided vanes as proposed by Kabeel
et al. were used at the entrance. It was reported that the non-
dimensional parameter on heat transfer using double pass
(DPSAH) was enhanced as compared to single-pass SAH.
Also, it was reported that the non-dimensional parameter on
heat transfer was higher in the case of double-pass staggered
arrangement followed by a double-pass inline arrangement
and double-pass flat plate absorber.
Singh and Singh (2018) investigated a curved absorber
solar air heater (CASAH) using computational fluid dynamic
technique. It was reported that the non-dimensional parameter
on heat transfer significantly increases with secondary vortex
formed near the absorber wall surface. The marginal deviation
between computational and experimental techniques was
found to be less than 10% on thermal efficiency. Similarly,
an increased rate of air flow through the curved absorber in-
creased the thermal efficiency (ƞth). The effect of corrugation
significantly increased the pressure drop, while the maximum
efficiency was found as 91.93% with pitch ratio (P/e) of 0.834.
The temperature of the air at the exit was enhanced by
32.05%. Saravanakumar et al. (2019) performed an analysis
on the absorber with arc-shaped roughened rib with additional
enhancement of efficiency by adding fins and baffles integrat-
ed with SAH. Their results revealed that the internal baffles
and fins improved the thermal efficiency up to 81.9% for
length and width of the baffle as 0.2 and 0.015 m respectively
at higher Reynolds number, and it was also reported that there
was an enhancement of about 28.3% with Lb and Wb of 0.4 m
and 0.015 m respectively. It was also reported that increased
pressure drop with increase in the number of baffles, and
simultaneously decreased the effective efficiency at higher
flow rates, whereas the effective efficiency increases at a
lower flow rate of air with an increased number of fins.
Komolafe et al. (2019) carried out experiments on SAH with
absorber plate modified by attaching rectangular ribs and

compared with those of numerical results from computational
fluid dynamics. Results revealed a maximum attainable solar
air heater temperature of 127 °C and 112 °C for simulated and
experimental results respectively. Similarly, the thermal effi-
ciency of SAH ranged between 14 and 56.5%. Ojike and
Okonkwo (2019) made an experimental analysis on passive-
type SAH and enhanced the thermal performance using palm
and paraffin oil as thermal heat energy source. Their results
revealed that the use of paraffin and palm oil improved the
mean thermal efficiency of SAH and it was found as 38.4 and
41% respectively, whereas the peak efficiency was found to be
46 and 57.3% respectively. It was also concluded that palm oil
can be used as a good substitute for paraffin.
Reddy et al. (2019) computationally analysed a solar air
heater using phase change material. From the theoretical anal-
ysis, it was found that the outlet temperature of air without
PCM was higher during sunshine hours compared to those of
air heater with PCM. The absorber plate temperature was
higher in the case of SAH without PCM and higher at lower
flow rates of air. On the transient variations, the liquid fraction
of PCM with lower flow rates of air was quicker as compared
to SAH with 0.014 and 0.02 kg/s. The computational study
also revealed that the increased thickness of PCM reduced the
exit air temperature during sunshine hours, whereas the exit
temperature enhanced by 2 and 15% for 2 and 3 cm PCM
thickness respectively. The optimum thickness of PCM was
found at 2 cm, while the daily efficiency (performance) was
increased for SAH with PCM. Kabeel et al. (2017) improved
the thermal performance of SAH with internal fins on the top
surface of absorber and PCM at the bottom surface. Three
different mass flow rates namely 0.009, 0.028 and 0.062 kg/
s were studied for the proposed system and the difference in
temperature between exit and inlet, instantaneous efficiency
and convective heat transfer were analysed for SAH with and
without PCM.
In this study, an attempt is made on the effective coating
of CNT doped with black paint in the absorber for en-
hanced thermal performance in standalone flat absorber
and staggered fin single-glazed solar air heater under var-
ious air flow rates through the duct. The enhancement of
exit air temperature, hourly thermal efficiency through the
conventional and staggered fin SAH with and without
coating are experimentally analysed. The ambient
influencing parameters on the solar air heater is experimen-
tally investigated. The volume concentration of CNT in
black paint is limited to 2%. Similarly, a detailed analysis
on daily thermal efficiency and difference in temperature
between exit and inlet is analysed and compared with that
of previous literature. A detailed economic analysis is car-
ried out to assess the cost per unit kW produced by the
SAH with modifications. A comparative analysis of the
daily thermal efficiency of the present study over previous
literatures were also carried out.
Environ Sci Pollut Res
Experimental setup
Figure 1 shows the schematic diagram of the staggered fin and
conventional flat plate solar air heater. The solar air heater
duct with a dimension of 2 m length, 0.5 m width (Asah =
1 m2) is fabricated using a mild steel sheet. The heat losses
from the SAH is reduced by keeping insulating materials
on the sidewalls and bottom. Transparent acrylic sheet with
a thickness of 4 mm and transmissivity of 0.88 is used as a
top cover that allows the solar intensity to reach the ab-
sorber plates. To avoid the leakage of air, silicon sealant is
provided. Furthermore, to increase the turbulence of air
flow inside the duct of the air heater, staggered fins are
attached to the absorber. A similar air heater without the
fin arrangement is fabricated and a comparative analysis is
carried out. Air is forced inside the air heater using a cen-
trifugal blower arrangement and uniform flow is main-
tained using convergent and divergent portions in the exit
and entry of air heater respectively. The velocity of air
flowing at the exit of the duct is measured using vane type
anemometer to determine the exit air flow rate. The blower
is operated with the help of solar photovoltaic panels, and
the power to the blower is regulated using a voltage regu-
lator. The discharge from the blower is connected to the
divergent portion (inlet) of the duct by flexible hose and
the rate of air flowing through the duct (SAH) is controlled
by a flow control valve and the flow rate is measured using
a U-tube manometer. The angle of tilt made by the SAH is
fixed as 13° which is the latitude of Chennai. Similarly, the
SAH is fixed in the North-South direction. The detailed
specification of the solar air heater is provided in Table 1.
Air flow rate is measured using U-tube manometer. The
different temperature points of SAH such as absorber, inlet
and outlet temperatures were measured using PT-100 type
RTD sensors. Temperature sensors were also installed in
0.4, 0.8, 1.2, and 1.6 m along the length of SAH to find the
increase in temperature throughout the entire experimental
condition. Using sophisticated experimental facility, the
ambient temperature, solar intensity and wind speed are
measured. The detailed specification of the instruments
used for the current experimental study is provided in
Table 2.
In order to increase the absorptivity of the absorber plate,
volume concentration of 2% is mixed with black paint and
experimentally analysed for the different flow rate of air inside
the air heater. Initially, the measured CNT particles were
mixed with turpentine which is used as a base solvent for
the black paint. The mixed particles are then sonicated for
1 h in probe type sonicator. After sonication, the mixture is
mixed with black paint and agitated for 30 min for attaining
homogeneous mixture. The entire absorber plate with stag-
gered fins is coated with black paint with CNT doped in it.
The SEM image of the CNT nanoparticle is shown in Fig. 2
Environ Sci Pollut Res

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of the staggered fin and conventional flat plate absorber solar air heater

and the detailed property of nanoparticle measured are shown characteristics of black paint and black paint with CNT
in Table 3. Figure 2 revealed that the average size of CNT (Fig. 3) are characterized using UV-Vis (LABRAM HR800)
nanoparticles is in the range of 24 to 35 nm. The absorption with wavelength ranging between 400 and 1100 nm. Based on
 Environ Sci Pollut Res

Table 1 Specification and

material parameters of SAH Component Specification

Glazing Length, l = 2 m and width, w = 0.5 m made of acrylic sheet with a transmissivity
of 0.88, thickness sheet = 4 mm
Absorber Length, l = 2 m and Width, w = 0.5 m made of mild steel sheet
Angle of tilt and 13° with the horizontal surface and orientation as North-South direction
orientation
Insulation material Glass wool
Coating Black paint with absorptivity of 0.95 and CNT-doped black paint with absorptivity
of 1
Entry and exit Convergent and divergent portion with air guided vanes for even distribution of air
throughout the duct
Fins Fins of staggered arrangement with 800 fins provided inside the duct

the obtained results, it is clear that the addition of carbon influencing parameters of uncertainty for determining thermal
particles with black paint improved the absorptivity up to efficiency are solar intensity, inlet temperature, outlet temper-
99.9% while the mean absorptivity of black paint is found at ature, mass flow rate and mathematically it is expressed as,
95.34% for a wavelength of intensity between 400 and "     2   #0:5
1100 nm. The dimensional stability of the nanoparticle en- wη wma 2 wT o 2 wT i wI 2
¼ þ þ þ ð5Þ
hanced the absorptivity. η ma To Ti I

Similarly, the influencing parameter for determining the

Energy analysis
The amount of useful energy from the solar collector is math-
ematically expressed as (Duffie et al. 2013),
Qu ¼ ma C p;a ðT o −T i Þ ð1Þ
The air flow rate through the duct is estimated using,
m a ¼ ρa U a A ð2Þ
Similarly, the hourly instantaneous thermal efficiency of
the SAH is mathematically expressed as (Chabane et al.
2014; Karsli 2007),
ma C p;a ðT o −T i Þ Qu
ηth ¼ ¼ ð3Þ
I ðt Þ  Ac I ðt Þ  Ac
The amout of heat energy absorbed by the absorber plate
including the transmission losses, bottom plate heat transfer
losses and useful energy is estimated as,


Qab ¼ I ðt ÞAc τ g αb −U c Ac T p −T a −Qu ð4Þ
Experimental uncertainty
Uncertainty in any measuring instrument is mainly due to
sensitiveness, and/or positional errors. Fractional change ap-
proximation method is used to determine the uncertainty pa-
rameters (El Khadraoui et al. 2016, 2017; Holman and Gajda
2001; Arfaoui et al. 2017; Bouadila et al. 2013). The
uncertainty of mass flow rate is velocity and it is mathemati-
cally derived as,
"      #0:5
wma wU a 2 wT amb 2 wPamb 2
¼ þ þ ð6Þ
ma Ua T amb Pamb
Based on the experimental data, the uncertainty of param-
eters measured such as temperature, solar intensity, mass flow
rate and wind velocity were estimated as ± 1.5%, ± 5%, ±
1.8% and ± 3.2% respectively.
Results and discussions
Conventional SAH with coating of ordinary black
paint and CNT doped black paint on absorber plate
The hourly variations in environmental parameters such as
solar intensity and ambient temperature for each experimental
conditions conducted on conventional SAH for various flow
rates of air are shown in Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7a, b. From Figs. 4, 5,
6 and 7a, b, it is observed that the deviations in solar intensity
and ambient temperature between the experimental days are
found as 2% and 1.5% respectively. Two similar SAH with
flat absorber is fabricated with a coating of black paint and
CNT-doped black paint during the experimental study. The
maximum solar radiation is observed during noon and starts
to decline in the afternoon. The average solar radiation and
ambient temperature are found at 675.66 ± 3.2 W/m2 and 36.1
± 0.5 °C respectively.
Environ Sci Pollut Res

Table 2 Experimental instrument

make, range, error and accuracy S.No. Instrument Make Range Accuracy Error in percentage

1 Solar intensity meter TES 1333R 0–2500 W/m2 ± 2 W/m2 5

2 Cup type anemometer AM4836 0–45 m/s ± 0.05 m/s 3.3
3 Manometer scale – 0–500 mm ± 1 mm 1
4 Thermocouple RTD (PT100 type) 0–250 °C ± 0.01 °C 1.5
5 Vane type anemometer – 0–25 m/s ± 0.05 m/s 3.1

Experimental results on the effect of coating CNT-doped
black paint and black paint without nanoparticle on various flow
rates of air are shown in Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7a, b. It can be observed
that the induced effect of adding high thermal conductivity black
material increased the absorption rate of solar intensity through
the absorber plate with a temperature of absorber plate being
higher at lower flow rates. Significantly, the average temperature
of the absorber plate is increased by 3–4 °C at lower flow rates
and 1–1.3 °C at higher flow rates (mf range between 0.13 and
0.22 kg/s). The average absorber plate temperatures of SAH
coated using ordinary black paint is found to be 68.8, 58.6,
40.2 and 36.9 °C for 0.03, 0.04, 0.13 and 0.22 kg/s flow rates
respectively. Similarly, for the flow rates of 0.03, 0.04, 0.13 and
0.22 kg/s, the average temperature of absorber plate coated using
CNT-doped black paint is found to be 72.6, 61.6, 41.1 and
37.4 °C respectively. The maximum exit temperature of the air
flowing through the SAH is found as 51.3 and 52.7 °C for a flow
rate of 0.04 kg/s using ordinary paint coated and CNT-doped
black paint on absorber plate respectively.
The increase in air flow rate from 0.13 to 0.22 kg/s through
the duct deduced that the temperature of the absorber and exit
air were equal. This is due to the higher convective heat trans-
fer between air and absorber in flat absorber SAH. Also, it is
depicted that the CNT-doped black paint coated on the absorb-
er plate significantly increased the temperature of exit air by
1.5 °C under higher flow rates. For the same experimental
condition, the maximum exit temperature estimated by
Abuşka et al. (2019) as 50.3 °C and 48.3 °C for 0.03 and
0.04 kg/s respectively, while for the present study it is found
as 51.7 °C for 0.03 kg/s of air flow rate. Similarly, on compar-
ing the results of Kabeel et al. (2016), the maximum exit tem-
perature is estimated as 53.4 °C on flat absorber with conven-
tional black paint for a flow rate of 0.028 kg/s. Their study on
conventional SAH revealed that the peak attainable absorber
plate temperature with respect to maximum solar radiation of
970 W/m2 is 80 °C under rate of air flow through the duct as
mf = 0.028 kg/s, while in the present investigation it is found as
89.2 °C and 83.6 °C using CNT-doped black paint and
ordinary black paint with lower flow rate of air and peak
solar intensity of 0.03 kg/s and 980 W/m2 respectively. The
peak attainable difference in temperature between exit and inlet
from the study of Kabeel et al. (2017) is found as 18.5 °C under
an air flow rate of 0.028 kg/s while in the present study, it is
found as 20.8 °C and 22.29 °C using CNT-doped black paint
and ordinary black paint respectively. Furthermore, it is also
found that the hourly difference of temperature between exit
and inlet decreases with an increase in air flow rate.
Modified staggered fin SAH with coating of ordinary
black paint and CNT-doped black paint on absorber
plate

The variations of solar intensity, ambient, inlet, exit and ab-

sorber temperature of staggered fin SAH using ordinary paint
coated and CNT-doped black paint on absorber plate for

Table 3 Specification of carbon nanotube (CNT)

S. No. Property CNT

1 Size of nanoparticle 24–35 nm

2 Purity > 97%
3 Colour Black
4 Thermal conductivity of nanoparticle (W/mK) 3007.4
5 Density of nanoparticle (kg/m3) 2100
6 Specific surface area (SSA) (m2/g) 200
7 Morphological behavior Cylindrical
8 Cp (J/kg K) 9124
Fig. 2 Scanning electron microscope image of CNT nanoparticle

Fig. 3 Absorptivity of black paint and black paint with CNT
different flow rates of air are shown in Figs. 8, 9, 10 and
11a, b. It can be observed that the effect of coating improved
the plate temperature to a maximum of 102 °C (Fig. 8b) while
the modified SAH coated with ordinary black paint and stag-
gered fin arrangement is found as 95 °C at lower flow rates.
The increase in absorber plate temperature is due to the stag-
gered fin arrangement and effective thermal conductivity of
the paint coated on the plate surface.
The absorber plate temperature of CNT-doped black
paint coated on SAH decreases as the air flow rate inside
the parallel plate increases, and the corresponding
Fig. 4 Variations of solar intensity, ambient, inlet, exit and absorber temperature of conventional SAH using ordinary paint coated and CNT-doped black
paint on absorber plate (mf = 0.03 kg/s)
Environ Sci Pollut Res
temperature of absorber plate for air flow rates of 0.04,
0.13 and 0.22 kg/s were found to be 93.2, 53.7 and
50.7 °C respectively, while the temperature of absorber
plate coated with ordinary black paint on modified SAH
with staggered fin arrangement was found to be 90.0, 51.8
and 48.9 °C. The induced turbulence in between the fins
enhanced the exit temperature of air to about 4.5 °C at
lower flow rates (mf = 0.03–0.04 kg/s), whereas the exit
temperature improved by 2 °C with higher flow rate of
air (mf = 0.12–0.22 kg/s) while compared to that of con-
ventional SAH with flat absorber plate coated with CNT-
doped black paint for the same atmospheric condition.
In the study carried out by Kabeel et al. (2016) on V-
corrugated SAH without phase change material (PCM) in
the absorber, the peak attainable instantaneous difference
in temperature between exit and inlet was found as 22 °C
under flow rate of air at mf = 0.028 kg/s, whereas in the
present study with the use of staggered fin arrangement and
CNT coating on absorber plate, it is found as 20.29 °C
under air flow rate of 0.03 kg/s. The absorber of conven-
tional SAH coated with ordinary black paint revealed that
the average difference in temperature between exit and
inlet is found at 12.05 °C which is increased to 18.43 °C
with staggered fin arrangement. Furthermore, in compari-
son with the study carried out by Kabeel et al. (2017) with
phase change material over the present study with absorber
plate coated with CNT-doped black paint for the same ex-
perimental condition, it is found that the difference in tem-
perature between exit and inlet is increased to about 30.3%
during sunshine hours till sunset.
Environ Sci Pollut Res

Fig. 5 Variations of solar intensity, ambient, inlet, exit and absorber temperature of conventional SAH using ordinary paint coated and CNT-doped black
paint on absorber plate (mf = 0.04 kg/s)

Figure 12 depicts the variation in the enhancement of
exit temperature with respect to the inlet temperature of
SAH duct at different flow rates of air in conventional
and staggered fin SAH with and without coating of CNT-
doped absorber plate. The temperature at the exit of stag-
gered fin enhanced to about 25% while comparing it with
the conventional SAH without coating, whereas the exit
temperature is increased by 33% with coating using stag-
gered fin arrangement. Similarly, the exit temperature of
staggered fin SAH with CNT-doped black paint increased
by 10% over staggered fin SAH without coating. Further
increase in the mass flow rate of air reduced the ratio of
outlet to the inlet temperature. The increase in outlet tem-
perature completely depends on the flow rate of air and
turbulent intensity created within the duct. The ratio further
also depends on the rate of heat absorbed by the high ther-
mal conductivity absorber and convective heat transfer be-
tween the air and plate surface. It is also noted that the
CNT-coated black paint on absorber enhanced the exit tem-
perature more than 20%.

Fig. 6 Variations of solar intensity, ambient, inlet, exit and absorber temperature of conventional SAH using ordinary paint coated and CNT-doped black
paint on absorber plate (mf = 0.13 kg/s)
 Environ Sci Pollut Res

Fig. 7 Variations of solar intensity, ambient, inlet, exit and absorber temperature of conventional SAH using ordinary paint coated and CNT-doped black
paint on absorber plate (mf = 0.22 kg/s)

Variations of absorber temperature of conventional
flat absorber and staggered fin SAH with ordinary
and CNT-doped black paint
Figure 13 shows the hourly variations in temperature of ab-
sorber using CNT-doped black paint and ordinary black paint
coated on the base plate at different flow rates of air through
the duct. The experimental results on conventional SAH with
absorber coated with CNT-doped black paint achieved a
maximum temperature of 89.4 °C while the temperature of
absorber coated with ordinary black paint is found at
83.6 °C for an air flow rate of 0.03 kg/s inside the air duct.
The higher absorbtion of higher thermal conductivity absorber
influenced the increase in the temperature up to 6.97% while
compared to that of conventional SAH coated with ordinary
black paint. Similarly, over a staggered fin SAH, the maxi-
mum temperature reached during the peak solar intensity
using CNT-doped black paint and ordinary black paint was

Fig. 8 Variations of solar intensity, ambient, inlet, exit and absorber temperature of staggered fin SAH using ordinary paint coated and CNT-doped black
paint on absorber plate (mf = 0.03 kg/s)
Environ Sci Pollut Res

Fig. 9 Variations of solar intensity, ambient, inlet, exit and absorber temperature of staggered fin SAH using ordinary paint coated and CNT-doped black
paint on absorber plate (mf = 0.04 kg/s)

found at 103.1 and 96.3 °C respectively. The increase in tem-
perature of the absorber is not only due to the thermal conduc-
tivity of the coated absorber but also the staggered fins ar-
ranged inside the duct. The higher air flow rate through the
duct decreases the temperature of absorber as the convective
heat transfer between the air and plate increases.
Variation of hourly thermal efficiency of conventional
flat absorber and staggered fin SAH with ordinary
and CNT-doped black paint
The variations in the instantaneous efficiency of SAH with
conventional absorber and staggered fin absorber on hourly

Fig. 10 Variations of solar intensity, ambient, inlet, exit and absorber temperature of staggered fin SAH using ordinary paint coated and CNT-doped
black paint on absorber plate (mf = 0.13 kg/s)

Fig. 11 Variations of solar intensity, ambient, inlet, exit and absorber temperature of staggered fin SAH using ordinary paint coated and CNT-doped
black paint on absorber plate (mf = 0.22 kg/s)
basis for all flow rates of air is shown in Fig. 14. It is observed
that the hourly thermal efficiency of conventional SAH with
ordinary and CNT black paint at a flow rate of air at 0.03 and
0.04 kg/s are lower as compared to higher flow rates of air.
The hourly thermal efficiency of the conventional type SAH
with coating exhibited an enhancement of about 5% in ther-
mal efficiency as compared to that of conventional type with
black paint coating alone for the same climatic condition.
On comparing the thermal efficiency of staggred-type SAH
with coating, the thermal efficiency enhanced to about 7.5%
compared to that of without coating, while the increased tur-
bulence maintained and higher exposed heat transfer area
Fig. 12 Enhancement of exit
temperature at different flow rates
of air
Environ Sci Pollut Res
enhanced the efficiency above 65% at higher flow rates.
Similarly, the hourly efficiency of staggered type SAH with
and without coating improved the thermal efficiency up to
30% on lower flow rates. On observing the thermal efficiency
of conventional type SAH over staggered type SAH with
coating at lower flow rates (mf = 0.03 kg/s), it was found that
with higher thermal conductivity of absorber plate, the effi-
ciency of SAH is increased up to 10%. The average enhance-
ment in the thermal efficiency of the conventional SAH with
coating over without coating is found to be 3% as the convec-
tive heat transfer between air and absorber is higher at in-
creased flow rates of air. Similarly, the average thermal
Environ Sci Pollut Res
Fig. 13 Variations in thermal efficiency of SAH with conventional absorber and staggered fin absorber
efficiency enhancement of about 2% is exhibited with stag-
gered fin SAH as the intensity of turbulence (kinetic energy) is
increased in the presence of fins.
Comparison of average thermal efficiency
and temperature difference of conventional flat
absorber and staggered fin SAH
As a measure of the thermal efficiency, the temperature differ-
ence between inlet and outlet plays a key role. The daily effi-
ciency and temperature difference of SAH coated with ordi-
nary black paint and CNT-doped black paint on conventional
and staggered fin arrangement is shown in Fig. 15a, b. It is
observed that the values of average daily efficiency of
conventional SAH is almost similar to the study carried out
by Abdullah et al. (2018) with a deviation of 5% in thermal
efficiency with coating of ordinary black paint on convention-
al SAH without nanoparticles, while the daily efficiency con-
ventional SAH from the present study at a flow rate of
0.04 kg/s is found as 47%. The average temperature difference
from the study of Abdullah et al. (2018) is 15 and 14.3 °C,
whereas in the present study, it is found as 14.3 and 10 °C for
absorber plate coated with ordinary black paint, whereas the
average thermal efficiency is found as 22.3%. The increase in
temperature of exit air using staggered fin SAH with and
without coated absorber is due to the turbulence created as

Fig. 14 Variations in thermal efficiency of SAH with conventional absorber and staggered fin absorber
well as the increased exposure area of air with the air heater
and the superior increment in thermal conductivity of absorber
plate coated with CNT dope black paint. Similarly, increasing
the mass flow rate from 0.12 to 0.4 kg/s has no significant
improvement in average daily thermal efficiency, whereas the
temperature difference decreases (Fig. 15a). On observing the
daily efficiency of CNT doped with black paint increased the
absorptivity, the daily efficiency is having a marginal increase
as the turbulence in between the plates is reduced at a lower
velocity of air passing. From Fig. 15a, it is also observed that
at higher flow rates, the daily efficiency is higher and found at
89.3% (mf = 0.22 kg/s) with CNT-coated absorber plate.
Environ Sci Pollut Res
With staggered fin arrangement in the absorber plate, the
daily efficiency of SAH improved from 19.7 to 30.35% using
ordinary black paint, whereas the improved thermal conduc-
tivity and absorptivity of black paint improved the daily effi-
ciency maximizing to 35.62% at lower flow rates (mf =
0.03 kg/s). Also, there is an improvement of about 1.8 °C in
the daily average temperature difference, which can be ob-
served from Fig. 15b. From the study of Ozgen et al. (2009),
it was found that the collector efficiency improves by increas-
ing the air flow rate (velocity). A comparison of different mod-
el SAH on daily thermal efficiency and the average difference
in temperature between outlet and inlet is shown in Table 4.
Environ Sci Pollut Res

Fig. 15 Variation in daily average thermal efficiency and temperature difference of a conventional flat absorber and b staggered fin solar air heater

The results of average daily thermal efficiency and the average
difference in temperature between outlet and inlet from the
present investigation over the previous studies with flat plate
absorber are almost equal with a marginal deviation of ± 7.4%.
Also, the use of CNT-doped black paint in the absorber of SAH
with staggered fin arrangement and flat absorber is higher as
compared to the studies of Kabeel et al. (2018).
where,
n- number of years (25 years)
Qav- average heat gained over the year (kW/year)
The average heat gained is estimated based on the daily
efficiency of SAH, average solar radiation, exposed area, op-
erating hours and number of sunshine days. Based on the
parameters, it is expressed as,

Qav ¼ ηd  I avg  As  working hours

Economic analysis  No:of sunshine days ð10Þ

where,
Table 5 shows the cost incurred on fabricating a SAH with and
As- Area exposed, (m2, As = 1 m2)
without coating. Heat gained from the solar air heater in cost
Iavg- Average solar intensity, (W/m2)
per unit is estimated using:
ηd- Daily efficiency, (%)
C ¼ F þV ð7Þ Working hours, (9 h/day)
No. of sunshine days, (350 days/ year)
where, Figure 16 compares the cost per unit (kW) of conven-
C- is the total cost ($) tional SAH with black paint, conventional SAH with CNT
F- is the fixed cost ($) and black paint, staggered SAH with black paint and staggered
V- variable cost ($) SAH with CNT black paint. It is observed that the average
The variable cost is estimated as, cost per unit kW of conventional SAH is higher while
V ¼ 0:15  ð F−U Þ ð8Þ compared to that of staggered SAH coated with ordinary
black paint. Similarly, the cost per unit kW of SAH on all
where, the cases decreases with increased flow rate of air as the
U- is the cost of photovoltaic panel ($) daily efficiency increases. The daily efficiency of SAH is
Cost per unit kW = C/(n*Qav) (9) higher in the case of staggered SAH with CNT dope black
 Environ Sci Pollut Res

Table 4 Comparison of thermal efficiency of present study over Table 4 (continued)

previous literatures
Study Type of solar air Mass Daily Temperature
Study Type of solar air Mass Daily Temperature heater flow rate efficiency, difference
heater flow rate efficiency, difference mf (kg/s) ηd (ΔT)
mf (kg/s) ηd (ΔT)
0.04 26.2
Kabeel Flat plate absorber 0.009 14.4 22 0.048 27.7
et al. SAH 0.028 32 15 SAH with Honey 0.008 10.2
(2016)
0.062 40.7 10 comb 0.016 17.3
Flat plate absorber 0.009 18.2 25 0.024 25.1
SAH with PCM 0.028 35.2 17 0.032 27.4
0.062 47 12 0.04 28.1
SAH with 0.009 22.2 30 0.048 30
V-corrugated 0.028 43.2 25 SAH with flat 0.008 10.8
absorber
0.062 50 12 absorber 0.016 23.3
SAH with 0.009 27 32 0.024 26.7
V-corrugated ab- 0.028 52 27 0.032 18.4
sorber and PCM
0.062 62 15 0.04 19.2
Kabeel Conventional flat 0.009 14 21 0.048 21.6
et al. absorber SAH 0.028 32 15 Present Conventional SAH 0.03 17.72 12.05
(2017)
0.062 40 7 study with ordinary 0.04 35.49 8.26
Finned plate SAH 0.009 22 24 black paint
0.13 65.65 7.39
with PCM 0.028 42 20 0.22 70.87 4.8
0.062 48 10 Conventional SAH 0.03 18.98 13.09
Finned plate PCM 0.009 19 20 with CNT-doped 0.04 38.12 8.9
without PCM 0.028 37 17 black paint on
0.13 71.75 8.19
absorber plate
0.062 40 5 0.22 77.65 5.29
Kabeel Single-pass SAH 0.013 18.2 22.4 Staggered fin SAH 0.03 31.64 18.43
et al. (Conventional) 0.022 25.3 19.2 with ordinary 0.04 32.2 18.06
(2018) black paint
0.031 28.2 18.3 0.13 62.99 10.59
0.04 30.1 16.3 0.22 64.9 8.88
Staggered SAH with 0.013 47.2 52.1 Staggered fin SAH 0.03 34.35 20.29
baffles (n = 800) 0.022 67.6 48.3 with CNT-doped 0.04 35.34 19.78
0.031 75.6 38.1 black paint on
0.13 69.32 11.68
absorber plate
0.04 83.8 34.7 0.22 71.5 9.848
Abdullah Double-pass flat 0.02 32 22.5
et al. plate heater 0.03 34 19.5
(2018)
0.04 42 18.5
0.05 45 15 paint which reduced the cost per unit kW. The daily effi-
Double-pass 0.02 36 23.5 ciency of staggered SAH with ordinary and CNT-doped
staggered fin SAH 0.03 47 22.5 black paint coated on the absorber plate are found at
0.04 59.4 22
37.58 and 41.18% respectively on an improvement of
0.05 65.6 21.5
about 50% with flat absorber coated with ordinary and
Double-pass 0.02 40 27.5
CNT-doped black paint reduced the cost per unit kW from
staggered fin SAH 0.03 0.086 $ to 0.017 $. The improvement in daily efficiency is
51.3 24.5
with guide vanes found in all the cases of SAH, but the coating of CNT-
0.04 64.3 24
doped black paint on the absorber plate increased the cost.
0.05 70 22.5
The cost per unit kW of conventional type SAH with CNT-
Abuşka SAH with Honey 0.008 10 NA
et al. comb and PCM 0.016 16.3 doped black paint reduced by four times while varying the
(2019) storage 0.024 22.4 flow rate from 0.031 to 0.22 kg/s, whereas the cost per unit
0.032 23.9 reduced by two times in the case of staggered fin SAH for
the same modification.
Environ Sci Pollut Res

Table 5 Fabrication cost of

conventional, staggered SAH Type of solar air heater Component Cost ($)
with and without CNT black paint
coating Conventional SAH (A) Sheet metal 35
Blower 10
Acrylic cover 5
Glass wool insulation 5
Control valve and PVC piping 5
Black paint and turpentine 3
Total cost ($) 66
Staggered SAH (B) Fins 20
Total cost ($) 86
Staggered SAH with CNT nano coating (C) CNT nano particles/gram 100
Total cost 186

Conclusions
The present study aims at improving the thermal efficiency of
ordinary and staggered fin SAH coated with black paint and
CNT-doped black paint and studies were carried out for dif-
ferent flow rates of air for the climatic condition of Chennai
during the summer session.
& The effect of coating improved the plate temperature to a
maximum of 102 °C while the modified SAH coated with
ordinary black paint and staggered fin arrangement is
found at 95 °C.
& The average daily thermal efficiency of SAH modified
with coating and staggered fins improved up to 98% at
lower mass flow rates, whereas the temperature difference
is lower for increased mass flow rate.
& Temperature difference for SAH with coating alone is
found at 14.3 °C at a mass flow rate of 0.013 kg/s, whereas
the average thermal efficiency is found at 22.3%.
& Similarly, increasing the mass flow rate from 0.12 to
0.4 kg/s has no significant improvement in average daily
thermal efficiency, whereas the temperature difference
decreases.
& With staggered fin arrangement in the absorber plate, heat
absorption by the air with CNT-coated absorber and ex-
cessive turbulence the average temperature difference is
increased from 13.5 to 20.3 °C.
& The temperature difference for staggered fin arrangement
with absorber plate coated with ordinary black paint is
improved 4 °C compared to that of conventional SAH.
& The coating of absorber plate with higher thermal conduc-
tivity paint and increased turbulence created between the
duct by using staggered fin improved the temperature of
exit air by 63, 64, 38 and 35% for air flow rates of 0.03,
0.04, 0.13 and 0.22 kg/s respectively. On a flat absorber
with coating, the average increase in temperature is found
at 6.3% compared to that of SAH coated with ordinary
black paint.

Fig. 16 Cost per unit kW on

variation in mass flow rate

& The hourly thermal efficiency of the conventional type
SAH with coating exhibited an enhancement of about
5% in thermal efficiency as compared to that of conven-
tional type with black paint coating alone for the same
climatic condition, whereas the thermal efficiency of stag-
gered fin SAH with coating alone is enhanced by 7.5%.
& With staggered fin arrangement in the absorber plate, the
daily efficiency of SAH improved from 19.7 to 30.35%
using ordinary black paint, whereas the improved thermal
conductivity and absorptivity of black paint improved the
daily efficiency maximizing to 41.18% at lower flow rates
(mf = 0.03 kg/s).
& The cost per unit kW of conventional type SAH with
CNT-doped black paint reduced from 0.01754 $ to
0.00832 $/kW while varying the flow rate from 0.031 to
0.22 kg/s.
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