Development of a Wind-Ventilated Box-Type Absorber Solar Air Collector

Abstract

This paper presents the design, construction and performance evaluation of a wind-ventilated ‎box-type absorber solar air collector. A box absorber was used to transfer heat to the air stream ‎via a larger surface area than ordinary flat-plate absorber and a rotary wind ventilator was ‎incorporated to exploit the benefits of using forced convection solar dryers in the remote areas ‎where electricity and other power source are non-existent. During the tests, maximum ‎temperatures of 62.50C and 58.50C were obtained inside the collector and drying chamber ‎respectively, while the maximum ambient temperature obtained was 33.00C. The system drying ‎efficiency increases as the air velocity through the system increases. The average air velocity ‎obtained through the solar dryer was 1.76 ms– 1 and the average drying efficiency of the system ‎was 40.9%. The dryer performance was optimum from 12.00 hour to 15.00 hour. The maximum ‎collector efficiency and average collector daily efficiency obtained were 55.2% and 41.0% ‎respectively‎