Optimization of single arc protrusion ribs parameters in solar air heater with impinging air jets based upon PSI approach

The present work investigates the influence of heat transfer and friction characteristics on performance of solar air heater (SAH) adopted with air impingement jets. The testing has been carried out for geometric factors viz. relative height ratios (eP/dP) from 0.8 to 1.7, relative pitch ratios (PP/eP) from 9.0 to 12, angle of arc (αa) from 40° to 80°, stream wise variation (Xs/dH) from 0.39 to 0.56 and span wise variation (Ys/dH) from 0.82 to 0.99 and Reynolds number (Re) from 4000 to 18000 respectively. The experimental study shows that air impingement jets improves the thermal performance and at same duration friction (ff) losses deteriorates the whole performance of SAH. Therefore preference selection index (PSI) methodology has been adopted by employing variant performance criterions to achieve the best set of factors which provides the highest thermal performance and least value of friction factor within the SAH. The best performance has been proposed by alternative with geometric and flow characteristics as; Re = 18000, eP/dP = 1.1, PP/eP = 10, αa = 600, Xs/dH = 0.40, Ys/dhy = 0.85 respectively.