Experimental study of the influence of collector height on the steady state performance of a passive solar air heater

Passive solar air heaters, such as solar chimneys and Trombe Walls, rely on solar-induced buoyancy-driven (natural) convection to produce the flow of air. Although buoyancy-driven convection is well understood for a single vertical plate, buoyancy-driven convection in an asymmetrically-heated channel is more problematic, and in particular, the effects of the channel height on the flow rate and heat transfer. This paper reports on experiments on test rigs resembling lightweight passive solar air-heating collectors. The test rigs were of heights 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 m, with adjustable channel depths (20–150 mm) and heat inputs (up to 1000 W/m2). Measurements were made of the air, plate and cover temperatures, and air velocities. Results are presented as dimensionless correlations of mass flow (as Reynolds number) and efficiency against heat input (as Rayleigh number), channel depth and height. Thermal efficiency is shown to be a function of the heat input and the system height, but not of the channel depth; mass flow is shown to be a dependent on all three parameters.