Numerical Investigation of a Solar Air Heater (SAH) with Triangular Artificial Roughness Having a Curved Top Corner

In the present study, numerical investigation of two-dimensional incompressible air flow through a solar air heater (SAH) with a triangular artificial roughness having a curved top corner is performed using ANSYS Fluent 15.0 based finite volume method. The geometrical parameters of the triangular ribs having a curved top corner such as the roughness height ratio (e/D = 0.021, 0.03 and 0.042) and the roughness pitch ratio (p/e =7.14, 10.70, 14.28 and 17.86) have been investigated for a varied Reynolds number between 3800 to 18000. Flow and energy governing equations were solved with the accosiation of two transport equation for the turbulence kinetic energy k and the dissipation rate ɛ. The RNG k-ε turbulent model have been selected to be the more appropriate turbulence model for the present study. Results indicates that the values of Nusselt number and friction factor strongly depend on the roughness relative height e/D, relative pitch p/e and the value of Re number. The best solar air heater performance could be obtained for e/D=0.042 and p/e=7.14.