Numerical study of fluid flow characteristic on V-corrugated plate solar air collector using cylindrical fin as a vortex generator

Solar collector uses solar energy radiation drawn in by absorber plate and transferred to the fluid. Solar collector thermal efficiency can be increased by putting up heat convection coefficient and turbulence flow inside solar collector's duct. It can be achieved by giving obstacles and fins to the flow to make wider heat transfer area. The geometry of the fins is half cylindrical with 6mm,8mm, and 10 mm diameter and fin spacing between obstacles is 0,25L;0,5L;0,75L respectively. The optimum fin geometry is chosen by numerical method using Fluent 6.3.26. The experiment uses vcorrugated absorber plate and 30° bill shaped obstacle. Experimental sets to test the effect of fin addition to solar collector's performance and efficiency. All fin variations are tested numerically with 6,5 m/s inlet velocity and constant heat flux of 430 Watt/m². The numerical analysis shows that the optimum result achieved at temperature difference of 8,809 C degree, pressure drop of 357,046 Paand 0.022 ratio, using 6mm diameter fin and 0,5L spacing between obstacles.