Three dimensional numerical and experimental study of forced convection heat transfer on solar collector surface

In this study, experimental and three dimensional numerical work was carried out to determine the average heat transfer coefficients for forced convection air flow over a rectangular flat plate. Three dimensional numerical simulations were obtained using a commercial finite volume based fluid dynamics code called Fluent 6.3. The experiments were performed for mass transfer using the naphthalene sublimation technique. The results were presented in terms of heat transfer parameters using the analogy between heat and mass transfer. All the experimental results are correlated within an accuracy of ± 12%.