Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 2594e2601

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Performance study of a novel solar air collector

Donggen Peng a, *, Xiaosong Zhang b, Hua Dong c, Kun Lv d
a

School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China c School of Municipal and Environment Engineering, Qingdao Technological University, Qingdao 266033, China d TJPM, Shanghai 200092, China
b

a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history: Received 6 July 2009 Accepted 12 July 2010 Available online 17 July 2010 Keywords: Solar air collector Pin-n arrays Thermal efciency

a b s t r a c t
A novel solar air collector of pin-n integrated absorber was designed to increase the thermal efciency. According to experimental results, the average thermal efciency of twenty-ve kinds of pin-n arrays collector reach 0.5e0.74 compared to the solar transmittance of 0.83 for the glazing. A correlation equation can be put forward to reect the maximum thermal efciency (hmax) of twenty-ve kinds of pin-n arrays collectors as function of dimensionless pin-n span (s/d) and dimensionless pin-n height (h/d). By theoretical calculation, the mathematic models of thermal efciency of twenty-six collectors including at-plate collector are obtained representing the inuences of solar irradiation and inlet conditions of air stream on thermal efciency. In the performance analysis of varying ow rate on PZ711.25 pin-n arrays collector, the correlation equation on heat transfer coefcient is obtained and the efciency variation vs. air ow rate is determined in this work. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Owing to rapidly rising oil prices and greenhouse gases, clean and renewable energy sources are received more and more attention for heating, cooling, drying and power generation applications in developing and developed countries. Solar energy, the most prolically renewable energy, can be employed in solar thermal and photovoltaic applications. Solar thermal technologies have been applied widely in which the solar air collectors (SACs) play an important role because of minimal use of materials. In the recent 40 years, different solar air collectors (SACs) have been proposed and discussed in the literatures, in which the simplest at-plate air collectors only consist of an air duct and the solar-energy absorber plate with the rear surface insulated [1,2]. Thermal performance of the solar air collectors depend on the material, shape, dimensions and layout and due to the small density, heat capacity and heat conductivity of air, solar air collectors are limited in their thermal performance. To improve the performance, two modications can be adopted as follows. One of the modications focuses on the absorption material within the coating on the absorber where the selective absorber plate would be used to improve the thermal performance of the collector. A solar air collector in which the duct back side is nned

* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: 86 3969652 0791. E-mail address: pdg751110@163.com (D. Peng). 1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2010.07.010

by rectangular plate-ns and the use of a selective absorber is adopted to achieve the lowering heat loss by radiation to the environment was designed by Hachemi [3]. Farooq and Hutchins [4] studied multilayer metal-dielectric graded index solar selective coatings in which the metallic volume fraction increases with depth, from top to bottom and found the optimized coating should be with a four-layer conguration (4-PGSAC) of composites of metal and dielectric. Otherwise, there are numerous design congurations available involving different combinations of geometrical details and airow patterns given in the literatures [5e23]. A solar air heater was developed by Digel et al. [5] in which air passes through radial channels of transparent material towards the absorber to recover top heat losses. Gupta et al. [6] systematically investigated the effect of transverse wire roughness on heat and uid ow characteristics in transitionally rough ow region for rectangular solar air heater ducts with an absorber plate having the wires on its underside. Chiou et al. [7] analyzed heat transfer and uid-friction characteristics of a slit-and-expanded aluminum-foil matrix solar collector and indicated such air collector had a higher efciency and lower friction losses than that of at-plate collectors. A solar matrix air collector which consists of two parallel sheets of black oxidized or black galvanized industrial woven, ne-meshed wire screens made of copper was designed by Kolb et al.[8] to overcome the physical problems of conventional at plate air collectors as well as the technical problems. Kurtbas and Durmus [9] constructed a solar air collector in which the absorber was designed with ve slices and

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Nomenclature A, B, C, m, n constant coefcients specic heat capacity of air, J/(kgK) Cp d pin-n diameter, m F solar collector area, m2 FR heat removal factor of collector [26] h heat transfer coefcient, W/(m2K); pin-n height, m solar radiation, W/m2 Ic m mass ow rate of air, kg/s Nu Nusselt number Pr Prandtl number total solar irradiation, W Qs

Qu Qcl Re s Ta,i Ta,o T0 Tp Ucl

useful heat gain of collector, W heat loss, W Reynolds number pin-n span [m] air inlet temperature of collector,  C air outlet temperature of collector,  C environment temperature,  C average temperature of absorber,  C total heat loss coefcient of collector, W/(m2 C)

Greek letter product of solar transmittance and absorption ratio (sa)e h thermal efciency of collector

investigated the effect of the ow line of the uid on the performance of solar collectors. The at collector with several types of obstacles disposed in rows in the dynamic air vein was constructed by Abene et al. [10]. Moummi et al. [11] chose rectangular plate-ns inserted perpendicular to the ow and the uid ows out through the interstices between ns in the same row that allows a good distribution of the uid and reduces the dead zones. Thermal performance of a solar air heater having its ow channel packed with Raschig rings was presented by ztrk and Demirel [12]. The performance of double-ow type solar air heaters, in which air was owing simultaneously over and under the absorbing plate, was investigated by Yeh et al.[13,14]. Abdullah el at. [15] presented the results of an experimental investigation of the performance of a solar collector outtted with honeycomb of different arrangements and found the arrangement of single honeycomb with bottom gap of 3 mm was the optimum. Choudhury and Garg [16] investigated the effects of the air ow velocities on the air temperature increment, the system efciency and the pressure drop experienced by the owing air for different air channel lengths and different specic mass ow rates of air. Different factors affecting the solar air heater efciency, e.g. collector length, collector depth, type of absorber plate, glass cover plate, wind speed, etc. were studied by Kabeel and Mejarik [17]. A mathematical model on solar at plate air collector with channels formed by metal slats was developed by Ammari [18] in which the inuence of the addition of the metal slats on the efciency of the solar collector was studied. Karsli [19] presented a performance analysis of four types of air heating at-plate solar collectors: a nned collector with an angle of 75 , a nned collector with an angle of 70 , a collector with tubes, and a base collector. A single-pass solar air collector with offset rectangular plate n absorber plate was studied by Youcef-Ali and Desmons [20,21]. Karim and Hawlader [22] reported the results of a performance study on v-groove solar air collector for drying applications. Hegazy [23] compared the performance of four photovoltaic/thermal solar air collectors with the air owing either over the absorber (Model I) or under it (Model II) and on both sides of the absorber in a single pass (Model III) or in a double pass fashion (Model IV). In this paper, novel solar air collectors were installed with the pin-n in the at-plate absorber which could show the following advantages: (1) Enhance thermal performance, i.e., achieving high thermal efciencies (large heat transfer coefcient even at lower air mass ow rates) and reducing heat losses. (2) Large exibility in application regarding geometrical parameters (for example pin-n height) as well as wide-range operating conditions (variable air mass ow rates).

(3) Having long durability (at least 20 years service life according to the ASHREA standards). (4) It could be fabricated at acceptable costs. This study conducted experimental work and established mathematical model to discuss the heat transfer performance of the novel air collector. 2. Experimental setup and measuring Pin-n arrays solar air collectors were covered by a single, high transmittance glazing with 4 mm thick, dimension size of 1100 580 mm, which was to reduce the convective and long wave losses to the atmosphere. Heat losses to environment from the sides and from the bottom of collector were minimized by good thermal insulation, namely 50 mm and 70 mm polystyrene sheet respectively. The absorber of pin-n arrays solar air collectors is a blackened stainless steel sheet of 1 mm with 490 990 mm size and is integrated with iron pin-ns of 4 mm diameter in the at plate, shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 in which the metal pin-ns, absorber and thermal insulation (benzene) are marked with a, b, c. The pin-ns have 10, 20, 30, 40, 45 mm in length and 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 mm in span respectively that forms 25 teams of novel solar

Fig. 1. Conguration of pin-n arrays solar air collector.

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s a b c s

Fig. 2. Conguration of the absorber.

collector marked with PZ(s/d) (h/d). The photograph of prototype collector and their test equipments are showed in Fig. 3. The absorber and pin-ns are covered by a layer of black lacquer to absorb shortwave solar radiation that penetrates the transparent glazing of collector and converts into thermal energy to heat the absorber and n-pins. The gap between the glazing and the absorber plate is 50 mm. The heat gain of absorber from solar radiation is transferred convectively to the air stream entering from the bottom and owing upward across the absorber. The fan is xed at the bottom of collector. The air stream ows vertically to the pinns from the bottom of the collector and is distributed over the entire column area of the collector. The direction of air stream driven by the fan is the same as that of natural convection driven by buoyancy that can increase thermal performance of collectors. The pin-n arrays solar air collector packed by stainless steel board of 1 mm with the size of 1100 600 140 mm was linked to the bracket soldered with L40 4 angle iron, so that the obliquity of collector can be adjusted. The main advantage of this type of collector is that the geometry, size and the material are chosen freely in a commercially available range. The outside air is driven by a mini centrifugal fan and enters into the novel air collector from the bottom and in the collector the cool air is heated by the hot absorber and at the top is introduced into indoor room for heating. The temperature rises of air were measured with thermocouples which were shielded against radiation and installed in the inlet and outlet of the test collector respectively. Each channel of the data logger was tted with a separate amplier and was calibrated by means of a thermostat and calibration thermometer to obtain the acceptable precision of air temperature measured (0.2  C). Air volume ow rates were determined with an accuracy of 3% by means of orice plate positioned in the front of

the test collector. The heat ux of solar irradiation was measured by a pyranometer with an accuracy of 3%. 3. Mathematical model of the collector 3.1. Physical model of the collector In order to analyze the performance of pin-n array solar air collector in theory, a mathematic model was introduced by using the following assumptions to simplify the calculation. (1) Due to the large thermal conductivity of the pin-ns and absorber, the difference of temperature between the pin-ns and absorber was ignored. (2) Approximately the thermal process in pin-n arrays air collector was in steady state. (3) The air temperature rise caused by the centrifugal fan was ignored. (4) The heat capacity of glazing was ignored. As the interior structure of pin-n arrays solar air collector is very complex, for study convenience, two dimensionless variables are introduced, which can make study generalized. (1) Dimensionless pin-n span (s/d) Dimensionless pin-n span was dened as the ratio of the span and diameter of pin-ns and according to the variations on collector structure the dimensionless pin-n spans were divided into 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. In the test experiments, ve kinds of absorbers which have different vertical spans between cavities were machined and installed with pin-ns by turns in the collector.

Fig. 3. Left: Photograph of examined solar air collector in the experimental site. Right: Photograph of test and data acquisition system.

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(2) Dimensionless pin-n height (h/d) Dimensionless pin-n height was dened as the ratio of the height and diameter of pin-ns and was classied as 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 11.25. The greater h/d indicates the higher pin-ns adopted in the experiments. On the same absorber, ve kinds of different height of pin-ns were xed by turns and consequently there were 25 kinds of pin-ns array solar air collectors tested in various outside climates. 3.2. Heat balance model of the collector The theoretical model employed for the study of steady thermal efciency of collector is based on heat balance correlation between the solar radiation energy, energy gain and the heat loss of collector, given as follows. (1) Heat balance equation According to the above assumptions on the physical model of solar collector solar energy absorbed by the absorber is converted into two parts: useful heat Qu absorbed by air stream for heating the room and heat loss Qcl to the surrounding. The solar radiation gain of absorber is dened as Qs(as) and the heat balance can be described by the following formula.

Fig. 5. Heat transfer coefcients of pin-n and at-plate collectors.

represented by the total solar radiation gain of the absorber reduced by heat loss Qcl on the other hand, given in the following.

Qs sae Ic Fsae Qu Qcl

(1)

Qu mcp Ta;o Ta;i FIc sae FUcl Tp T0

(4)

(2) Heat loss Qcl The heat loss of collector is dened the product of total heat loss coefcient Ucl, the absorber area F and temperature difference between average temperature of the absorber Tp and ambient temperature T0.

Qcl FUcl Tp T0

(2)

(4) Thermal efciency of the collector h The thermal efciency h of the collector is dened the useful heat Qu divided by the total radiation to collectorQs. Substituted by Eq.(4), the thermal efciency h can be dened the function of average temperature Tp of the absorber, ambient temperature T0, solar radiation Ic and the heat removal factor FR introduced by Ref.[26] and the average temperature of the absorber Tp can be substituted by air inlet temperature Ta,i given in the following.

The collector overall heat loss coefcient (UcL) is the sum of top, bottom and edge heat loss coefcients (Ut, Ub, Ue)[24,25]. It means:

Ucl Ub Ue Ut

(3)

Ta;i TE Tp T0 Qu sae Ucl FR sae Ucl Qs Ic Ic Ta;i T0 AB Ic

(5)

(3) Useful heat Qu The useful heat can be dened by the product of temperature difference (Ta,oTa,i) between air outlet and inlet of collector and heat capacity (mCp) on the one hand and the useful heat can be

The above heat balance model can be employed to calculate the outlet temperature of air stream and thermal efciency, the specic procedures given as follows:

Fig. 4. Thermal conditions of two kinds of collectors (at plate and PZ3-11.25).

Fig. 6. Experimental efciencies of pin-n and at-plate collectors.

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Fig. 7. Calculated efciencies of pin-n and at-plate collectors.

(1) Based on the given inlet temperature of air stream and solar radiation, the average temperature of absorber is assumed rstly for iterative calculation; (2) According to the equations shown in the references [24,25], the collector overall heat loss coefcient seen in Eq.(3) can be obtained and then the useful energy can be calculated according to Eq.(4); (3) According to the useful energy and the inlet temperature of air stream, the outlet temperature of air stream can be calculated and the average temperature of air stream can be obtained; (4) According to useful energy, convective heat transfer coefcient between air stream and absorber and the average temperature of air stream, another the average temperature of absorber can be calculated;

(5) Check if the calculated average temperature of absorber match with the assumed values or the results of the last iteration and repeat steps (1)e(4) until the errors are acceptable.

3.3. Convective heat transfer coefcient correlation In the pin-n arrays solar air collector, the air stream is not only heated by the absorber, but also absorbs thermal energy from the pinns that results in higher heat transfer coefcient in the collector compared to the at-plate collector. Integrating the effect of pin-ns, the convective heat transfer coefcient correlation can generally be deduced into a function of the dimensionless variables:Nusselt number(Nu), Reynolds number(Re) and Prandtl number(Pr) as follows:

D. Peng et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 2594e2601 Table 1 Efciency equations on 26 kinds of collectors. Type PZ3-2.5 PZ3-5 PZ3-7.5 PZ3-10.5 PZ3-11.25 PZ5-2.5 PZ5-5 PZ5-7.5 PZ5-10.5 PZ5 11.25 PZ7-2.5 PZ7-5 PZ7-7.5 PZ7-10.5 PZ7-11.25 Efciency Equation Type PZ4-2.5 PZ4-5 PZ4-7.5 PZ4-10.5 PZ4-11.25 PZ6-2.5 PZ6-5 PZ6-7.5 PZ6-10.5 PZ6-11.25 Efciency Equation

2599

h 0.526 2.59 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.563 2.85 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.619 3.01 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.682 3.1 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.716 3.11 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.515 2.62 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.532 2.65 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.582 2.84 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.65 2.96 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.68 2.99 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.5 2.61 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.52 2.62 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.562 2.75 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.619 2.82 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.642 2.986 (Ta,i T0)/Ic

h 0.52 2.64 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.557 2.82 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.594 2.98 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.675 3.08 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.702 3.07 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.507 2.6 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.529 2.66 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.569 2.77 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.637 2.9 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.669 2.94 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.502 2.56 (Ta,i T0)/Ic

Flat-plate

Nu CRen Pr m

(6)

The characteristic length adopted in Eq.(6) is the inlet equivalent diameter of air stream. 4. Performance study of kinds of collectors in invariable ow rate The performance of twenty-ve kinds of pin-n collectors and at-plate collector in invariable ow rate were investigated experimentally and theoretically. The useful heat rate, collector efciency and heat transfer coefcients between air stream and the absorber were calculated to obtain directly from the experimental data and theoretically calculated results respectively. In twenty-ve kinds of pin-n arrays collectors, the collector of PZ3-11.25 had the greatest thermal efciency because it had the smallest span and the highest height in the collector. Consequently, the thermal conditions of PZ3-11.25 were chose to compare with that of the at plate in experiment in order to show the advantage of pin-n collector. Under the experimental volume ow rate of 19 m3/h, the thermal conditions of PZ3-11.25 pin-n arrays collector for 4 h when the ambient air temperature varied among 10e13  C and solar irradiation changed from 600 to 930W/m2 were compared with at-plate collector at the same outside environment, shown in Fig. 4. As shown in Fig. 4, the average temperature

of absorber in pin-n arrays collector was 10  C less than that of at collector and even was 25  C less than the outlet air temperature of pin-n arrays collector. This is because the heat transfer coefcient in the novel collector is so high that the temperature difference between air stream and the absorber is rather small. The lower temperature of the absorber can yield less the heat loss to the surrounding from the collector, which can increase the outlet temperature of the heated air. In experiments the air outlet temperature of pin-n arrays collector was about 20  C higher than the at-plate collector that fully prove the pin-ns stalled in the absorber do improve the thermal performance of collector. From the above analysis, it is the higher heat transfer coefcients that increase the thermal performance for pin-n arrays solar collector. Through analyzing the experimental data, the heat transfer coefcients on 25 kinds of pin-n arrays air collectors and at-plate collector are shown in Fig. 5 in which the heat transfer coefcient of at-plate collector amounts to 9.8 W/(m2  C), far less than kinds of pin-ns collectors. As seen in Fig. 5, when the dimensionless pin-n heights keep the same, the increase of dimensionless pin-n spans yields the decrease of heat transfer coefcients. The denser pin-ns unquestionably can increase the thermal performance and result in higher air outlet temperature. On the other hand, under the same pin-n spans, the heat transfer coefcients increase when dimensionless heights augment. For example, when the dimensionless pin-ns span is equal to 3, the

Fig. 8. Heat transfer coefcients h of PZ7-11.25.

Fig. 9. Efciency variation of PZ7-11.25 vs. ow rate.

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heat transfer coefcients increase from 10.79 to 28.96 W/(m2  C) increasing 1.7 times while the dimensionless pin-n heights rise from 2.5 to 11.25. With the dimensionless height keeping 2.5, the heat transfer coefcients decrease from 10.79 to 10.1W/(m2  C) while the dimensionless spans increase from 3 to 7. The maximum heat transfer coefcient of 28.96 W/(m2  C) at s/d 3 and h/ d 11.25 is about three times than that of at-plate collector showing the increase of height and the decrease of span for pin-n arrays collectors are preferable to the increase of heat transfer coefcients. As the result of the variation of heat transfer coefcients for kinds of pin-n arrays collectors, the thermal efciencies of collectors were very different from one another. The efciencies of twenty-six air collectors including at-plate collector were shown in Fig. 6 that were performed under the same air volume ow rate of 19 m3/h coming from the surrounding. From Fig. 6, it can be seen that the efciencies h of 25 kinds of pin-ns collectors vary from 0.5 to 0.74 increasing 50% on the PZ3-11.25 collector compared to the at-plate collector. The variations of efciencies depended on dimensionless height and span of pin-ns are similar to the change of heat transfer coefcients increasing along with the increasing height and the decreasing span. Under the same air ow rate, the efciencies of pinns collectors are entirely relied on the above two kinds of structure parameters in collector. Applying linear regression analysis to arrange the experimental results in Fig. 6, the correlation equation of collector efciency vs. h/d and s/d is given by:

hmax 0:65

 0:224  0:149 s h d d

(7)

The differences of 90% efciency comparisons between experimental values and calculation values from Eq.(7) are among 10%. Summing up above analysis results, the pin-ns installed on the absorber of at plate can really improve the thermal performance of the collector. The above experimental comparisons also illustrated the pin-n collectors had higher heat transfer coefcients and efciencies compared with at-plate collector. However, the above experiments were limited to the invariable air ow rates and the inlet conditions of air stream, resulting in the lack of further application.

In order to conquer experimental limits, the heat balance model of collector must be utilized to study the collector efciency along with the varying environment parameters. Besides the structure of pin-n arrays collectors, the collector efciencies depend on the solar irradiation and inlet conditions of air stream. The efciencies illustrated in Fig. 6 only represent the maximum values when the inlet conditions of air stream are equal to the surrounding conditions. The efciency decreases with the increasing inlet temperature and the decreasing solar radiation. In order to analyze how the thermal efciencies of pin-n collectors are inuenced by solar irradiation, inlet air temperature of collector and outdoor temperature, the heat balance models of collector were employed to calculate the thermal efciencies of twenty-six collectors in theory with the outdoor temperature of 10  C and heat transfer coefcients represented in Fig. 5. These calculated results of steady efciency were shown in Fig. 7. As seen in Fig. 7, at Ta,i T0 the efciencies reach the maximum that agree well with the experimental values in Fig. 6 validating the theoretical calculation model. The steady efciencies of twenty-six collectors decrease linearly along with (Ta,i-T0)/Ic showing that the stronger solar irradiation Ic and lower air inlet temperature Ta,i yield the higher thermal efciency h. All these lines of variations for pin-n collectors are almost parallel to each other and the increased height of pin-ns has signicant effect on the steady efcient. This is because in the entire passage of air stream the higher pin-ns can boost up the turbulence of the air stream in collector and consequently increase heat exchange of both. For the sake of formulating the variation trend shown in Fig. 7 better, by applying linear regression analysis, the mathematical models on thermal efciency of these twenty-six collectors were given in Table 1. The coefcients A and B seen in Eq.(5) were assigned different values depending on the framework of collectors in the Table 1 in which the coefcient A indicates the maximum efciency and the coefcient B represents the variation trend of efciency with (Ta,i-T0)/Ic. As seen in Table 1, the calculated maximum efciencies agree with the experimental data in Fig. 6. The coefcients B change from 2.56 to 3.11W/(m2 C), the highest difference reaching 21%. The at plate has the smallest efciency, but has the least decrease trend at the same condition. The PZ3-11.5 collector has the maximum efciency, but it decreases more quickly than other collectors with the variations of solar radiation and inlet temperature. The above efciencies were calculated under the same air volume ow rate of 19 m3/h, because the heat transfer coefcients in Fig. 5 were adopted in the process of theoretical calculation. However, the heat transfer coefcients strongly depend on the air ow rate. In the following section, by changing the ow rate of air in experiments, the performance of PZ7-11.25 collector was studied and the thermal efciency of PZ7-11.25 collector at varying ow rates of air were obtained by theoretical calculation. 5. Performance study of PZ7-11.25 collector in variable ow rate The air volume ow rate Va varied from 70 m3/h to 330 m3/h in the experimental study on the performance of PZ7-11.25 collector.

Table 2 PZ7-11.25 collector efciency correlations vs. air volume ow rate. Volume ow rate Va (m3/h) 50 100 150 200 250 300 Fig. 10. PZ7-11.25 collector efciency variation. Efciency correlations

h 0.57 2.65 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.68 3.08 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.76 3.3 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.81 3.46 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.82 3.54 (Ta,i T0)/Ic h 0.84 3.61 (Ta,i T0)/Ic

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By measuring the outlet temperature and the absorber temperature, the relation of heat transfer coefcients of PZ7-11.25 collector vs. air ow rate can be obtained, shown in Fig. 8. The heat transfer coefcient h inceased from 15 W/(m2 K) to 48 W/(m2 K) and the result indicated that the air ow rate showed very obvious effect on the heat transfer. The correlation of convective heat transfer coefcient within the airow duct of solar air collector can be given as follows:

Research Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province China (CX07B_095z) and the Key Grant Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (307013) References
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Nu 0:0755Re0:8 Pr 0:33

(8)

Experimental validity range: Re 3000e17,000. Corresponding to the variation of heat transfer coefcient, the efciency of PZ7-11.25 collector in Fig. 9 indicates that when the air volume ow rate Va increased from 80 m3/h to 320 m3/h, the efciency rise from 0.65 to 0.87 increasing 34%. The increase of air ow rate could increase thermal efciency of collector signicantly but it had a maximum corresponding to the optimal ow rate. When air ow rate Va exceeded the optimal ow rate, the efciency decreased. This is because the increase of heat transfer coefcient could also increase heat loss to the surrounding. Applying heat balance model of the collector, the efciency vs. the average temperature of absorber and solar radiation at different air ow rates could be obtained, shown in Fig. 10. The efciency decreased along with the increase of (TpT0)/Ic and the variation lines were similarly parallel. The mathematical models of thermal efciency for six kinds of air ow rates are given in Table 2. The coefcients A in efciency equations changed from 0.57 to 0.84 that amounted to the maximum efciency showed in Fig. 9 at the same air ow rate and the coefcients B increase from 2.65 to 3.61 with the increase of air ow rate from 50 m3/h to 300 m3/h. 6. Conclusions Solar air collector is a preferable photothermic technology and in order to increase its thermal efciency a pin-n arrays solar air collector based on at plate air collectors was designed. From analyzing experimental results, the heat transfer coefcients on pin-n arrays collectors and at-plate collector have been obtained under the air volume ow rate of 19 m3/h and the heat transfer coefcient of PZ3-11.25 pin-ns collector can reach three times than that of the at-plate collector. The maximum thermal efciencies hmax of 25 kinds of pin-n collectors when the inlet temperature of air stream is equal to surrounding temperature are given as follows: hmax 0:65s=d0:224 h=d0:149 . On the basis of experimental data, the heat balance model of collectors was used to calculate the steady efciencies of twenty-six collectors along with the solar irradiation and inlet condition of air stream. In the performance analysis on PZ7-11.25 pin-n arrays collector in variable ow rate, the correlation equation of heat transfer coefcient is obtained:Nu 0:0755Re0:8 Pr 0:33 and the efciency variation vs. air ow rate is determined. Acknowledgements This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50676018), the College Graduate Scientic