Heat transfer enhancement in Solar Air Heater (SAH) has been investigated by
implementing rough surfaces in the absorber plate. We use paraffin wax is
used as Phase Change Material (PCM) integrated with SAH as a Thermal Energy
Storage (TES) system. A maximum convective heat transfer is attained during
the daytime and retained as latent heat (LH) to discharge heat during OFF
radiation. In this investigation, two types of absorber plates were employed
such as flat & polygonal-shaped ribs at the test section. Further to
investigate the heat transfer enhancement, the research was conducted with
and without PCM. The study was carried out at the mass flow rates of 0.062
kg/s, 0.028 kg/s, and 0.01 kg/s to ascertain the enhancement of thermal
efficiency and heat discharge duration. The temperatures of absorber plate
Tp, ambient Tamb, outlet Tout and PCM along with Solar Intensity I (W/m-2)
were taken as the main parameters. The research reveals that the absorber
plate with polygonal ribs tested with PCM yields a higher temperature of 77?C
with a mass flow rate of 0.062 kg/s during peak radiation. And discharged
heat energy from PCM to absorber plate for 3.5 hours with a maximum
temperature of 7.1?C.