The low cost wind turbines with timber blades represent a good solution for the decentralized energy production in off-grid regions of developing countries. This paper summarizes the results of investigations on the mechanical testing and choice of timber for wind blades, testing of different...

Solar air heaters of many types have been developed in India and their performance studied in detail. The application of these air heaters are limited to a few demonstration projects for food dehydration, and space heating. Some of these case studies are described in this paper. For a few cash...

The device performance of the new design of wire mesh packed double-pass solar air heaters with attaching wire mesh under external recycle was investigated experimentally and theoretically. The improvement of device performance of wire mesh packed solar air heaters with different flow patterns...

The regeneration of silica gel desiccant by a solar air heater for use in an air-conditioning system has been investigated. The hot air is produced by a compound parabolic concentrator collector (CPC), which has aperture and receiver areas 1.44 and 0.48m2, respectively. The regeneration...

This paper describes the development and testing of an educational solar air heater. The flat-plate solar air heater has been used as a teaching rig for undergraduate students in measurements laboratory sessions, during which the collector efficiency is determined. The results of indoor testing...

The influence of external recycle on the collector efficiency in solar air heaters with internal fins attached, has been investigated theoretically. The application of external recycle operation to solar air heaters actually has two conflict effects. One is the increase in fluid velocity to...

As is well known, the heat transfer coefficient of a solar air heater duct can be increased by providing artificial roughness on the heated wall (i.e. the absorber plate). Experiments were performed to collect heat transfer and friction data for forced convection flow of air in solar air heater...

In the present work the performance of a solar air heater duct provided with artificial roughness in the form of thin circular wire in arc shaped geometry has been analysed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The effect of arc shaped geometry on heat transfer coefficient, friction factor...

Artificial roughness in the form of repeated transverse chamfered rib-groove roughness on one broad wall has been proposed as a convenient method for enhancement of thermal performance of solar air heater. An experimental investigation on heat and fluid flow characteristics of fully developed...

An experimental investigation has been carried out to study the heat transfer coefficient by using 90° broken transverse ribs on absorber plate of a solar air heater; the roughened wall being heated while the remaining three walls are insulated. The roughened wall has roughness with pitch (P),...