This investigation integrates experimental and numerical approaches to study a novel solar air heater aimed at achieving an efficient design for a solar collector suitable for drying applications under the meteorological conditions of Iraq. The importance of this investigation stems from the lack of optimal exploitation of solar energy reaching the solar collector, primarily attributable to elevated thermal losses despite numerous designs employed in such solar systems. Consequently, enhancing the thermal performance of solar collectors, particularly those employed in crop drying applications, stands as a crucial focal point for researchers within this domain. Two identical double-pass solar air heaters were designed and constructed for this research. Two types of copper foam sheets with different pore densities, specifically 10 PPI and 40 PPI, were used as absorber plates. The novel solar air heater was compared with a conventional solar air heater equipped with a flat absorber plate based on thermal performance. The effects of the mass flow rate, the air gap of the solar collector, and solar irradiation were examined on various parameters, including the outlet air temperature, solar collector efficiency, and pressure drop across the solar collectors. The results demonstrated that the double-pass solar air heater equipped with a 10 PPI porous absorber plate exhibited superior thermal performance compared to both the double-pass solar air heater with a 40 PPI absorber plate and the conventional absorber plates. Consequently, it can be considered suitable for drying applications. Furthermore, a comparison of the experimental findings with the results obtained from previous studies showed a good agreement.
In Iraq most of the small buildings deployed a conventional air conditioning technology which typically uses electrically driven compressor systems which exhibits several clear disadvantages such as high energy consumption, high electricity at peak loads. In this work a thermal performance of air conditioning system combined with a solar collector is investigated theoretically. The hybrid air conditioner consists of a semi hermetic compressor, water cooled shell and tube condenser, thermal expansion valve and coil with tank evaporator. The theoretical analysis included a simulation for the solar assisted air-conditioning system using EES software to analyze the effect of different parameters on the power consumption of c
... Show MoreIn this study, the effect of intersecting ribs with inclined ribs on the heat transfer and flow characteristics of a high aspect ratio duct has been numerically investigated. The Relative roughness pitch (P/e) is 10 and the Reynolds number range from 35,700 to 72,800. ANSYS (Fluent-Workbench 18.0) software has been utilized to solve the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with the Standard k-ε turbulence model. Three ribbed models have been used in this study. Model 1 which is a just inclined ribs, Model 2 which has a single longitudinal rib at the center with inclined ribs and Model 3 which has two longitudinal ribs at the sides. The results showed that the heat transfer rate has been enhanced when the int
... Show MoreThe two dimensional steady, combined forced and natural convection in vertical channel is
investigated for laminar regime. To simulate the Trombe wall channel geometry properly, horizontal
inlet and exit segments have been added to the vertical channel. The vertical walls of the channel are
maintained at constant but different temperature while horizontal walls are insulated. A finite
difference method using up-wind differencing for the nonlinear convective terms, and central
differencing for the second order derivatives, is employed to solve the governing differential
equations for the mass, momentum, and energy balances. The solution is obtained for stream
function, vorticity and temperature as dependent variables
The present paper is an experimental study to improve the productivity of the conventional solar still. This done by modifying conventional still in a way that the distilled basin is larger than distillation basin, thus providing an increase in the condensation surface and speeding up the condensation process. Moreover, increase in the dimensions of the distilled base helps coupling reflective panels to the distilled base to reflect incident solar radiation to the distillation basin. For this purpose , two solar stills were made, one conventional designand another made according to the proposed design. The two solar stills were tested during the period from February to July 2009 under varying weather conditions of Basra, Iraq (latitude o
... Show MoreIn low-latitude areas less than 10° in latitude angle, the solar radiation that goes into the solar still increases as the cover slope approaches the latitude angle. However, the amount of water that is condensed and then falls toward the solar-still basin is also increased in this case. Consequently, the solar yield still is significantly decreased, and the accuracy of the prediction method is affected. This reduction in the yield and the accuracy of the prediction method is inversely proportional to the time in which the condensed water stays on the inner side of the condensing cover without collection because more drops will fall down into the basin of the solar-still. Different numbers of scraper motions per hour (NSM), that is
... Show MoreA mathematical model constructed to study the combined effects of the concentration and the thermodiffusion on the nanoparticles of a Jeffrey fluid with a magnetic field effect the process of containing waves in a three-dimensional rectangular porous medium canal. Using the HPM to solve the nonlinear and coupled partial differential equations. Numerical results were obtained for temperature distribution, nanoparticles concentration, velocity, pressure rise, pressure gradient, friction force and stream function. Through the graphs, it was found that the velocity of fluid rises with the increase of a mean rate of volume flow and a magnetic parameter, while the velocity goes down with the increasing a Darcy number and lateral walls. Also, t
... Show MoreIn this work a study was made in centrifugal fan blower to investigate the effect of impeller blade design on sound pressure level (SPL). Shroud and unshroud impeller of nine blades are used. The sound generation from flow inside the test rig at different positions was displayed by using spectral analyzer. The experiments were carried out in anechoic chamber with small holes in its walls, under ambient condition about (25-27) C ° to avoid the effect of temperature on the sound pressure level. The results showed that (SPL) decreased with the increase of distance from the source about (3-4)dB when distance varied about (0.8-1.06)m, and the (SPL) decreased with the decrease of velocity about (8-12)dB when velocity varied between (13000-260
... Show More