A One-dimensional Analysis and Optimum Air

Flow Rate of a Triple-Pass Solar Air Heater

Nguyen Minh Phu Nguyen Van Hap Phan Thanh Nhan
Faculty of Heat and Refrigeration Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Engineering Ho Chi Minh City University of Ho Chi Minh City University of
Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh Technology (HCMUT), VNU-HCM Technology (HCMUT), VNU-HCM
City (IUH) Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
nguyenminhphu@iuh.edu.vn
Huynh Phuoc Hien
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Ho Chi Minh City University of
Technology (HCMUT), VNU-HCM
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Abstract— Renewable energy conversion of solar energy to temperature distribution in double pass SAH and compared
2021 24th International Conference on Mechatronics Technology (ICMT) | 978-1-6654-2459-2/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICMT53429.2021.9687144

hot air is a feasible and sustainable solution in the trend of
energy saving and environmental protection. In this work, a 1D
mathematical model is reported and solved using the control
volume method to investigate the distribution of seven
temperatures in the triple pass flat plate solar air heater (SAH).
A compact solver for predicting local temperatures of a
multiple-pass SAH has been rarely found in the open literature.
The collector parameters are fixed while the mass velocity of the
air is varied from 0.0121 to 0.07246 kg/m2-s. The results of
temperature distribution analysis show that the absorber plate
temperature reaches a maximum in the center of the plate which
is different from that of a double pass solar air collector. When
the air flow rate is large, the upper glass is no longer able to
transfer heat to the air, so the efficiency of the triple pass
collector decreases. It is concluded the pertinent air flow rate of
0.04 kg/m2-s to obtain the highest effective efficiency of 64%.
The present study is expected to develop multi-parametric study
and apply finned, baffled or ribbed air channels.
Keywords— Energy conversion, 1D analysis, mass flow rate,
multiple pass, local temperature, effective efficiency, renewable
energy
I. INTRODUCTION
Solar thermal energy conversion into hot air using a solar
air heater (SAH) has always been of interest to researchers.
Because SAH is a straightforward equipment, uncomplicated
to produce, large heat loss and poor heat transfer of air which
result in continuous attempt to increase its performance [1].
One of the most possible solutions is to re-arrange the air flow
inside the SAH into multiple passes to reduce the absorber
plate temperature which reduces the top loss of the SAH.
Chamoli et al. [2] reported a review study of the double pass
SAH. Detailed mathematical model and modifications for the
SAH have been presented. The literature can be viewed as the
starting point for multi-pass SAH studies from both the
analytical and experimental aspects. Luan and Phu [3] solved
approximately single and multi-pass air collectors. They
concluded that triple pass solar air heater (TPSAH) obtains
high technical and economic efficiency. Ramani et al. [4]
analyzed temperature profile in a double pass SAH
with/without porous media. The upwind finite difference
method was adopted to solve the non-linear equation system.
They proved that temperature difference between the porous
material and air stream is smaller than that between the
absorber plate and air stream for the collector without porous
material. Karim et al. [5] continued to develop the model of
results with the model of Ramani et al. [4]. They applied the
matrix method solution to simplify ordinary differential
equations (ODEs). It was reported that the solution predicted
the local temperatures of the air collector accurately.
To the best of our knowledge, an investigation of the
temperature distribution in TPSAH has not been performed.
Although, calculation of mean temperature has been done in
the literature. The temperature distribution in the TPSAH is
essential to indicate the temperature cross which is poor heat
transfer. Moreover, the surface temperature may be lower than
the air temperature which represents the heat loss. In this
study, a one-dimensional (1D) analytical modelling was
developed and approximated using the control volume
method. The temperature fields of the air streams and heat
exchanger walls at different flows are shown.
II. MODEL DESCRIPTION
Figure 1 depicts a triple pass air collector consisting of two
glazing covers at the top, an absorber plate and a bottom plate.
The collector with the length L and air channel depth D is
receiving solar radiation I. The air passes through three passes
from top to bottom as illustrated in the figure. In the current
work, the SAH geometry and weather parameters are given to
calculate the air temperature, glazing, plates and efficiencies.
From the figure, it can be seen that there are seven
temperatures to be calculated including three air temperatures
in three passes (Tf1, Tf2, and Tf3), two glass temperatures (Tg1
and Tg2) and two plate temperatures (Tp and Tb). The 1D
mathematical model for these seven temperatures in the x
direction is established from the heat balance equations as
follows:
- Upper glazing: Solar radiation received by the glazing
equals to the heat transferred by convection and radiation
above and below the glazing [3, 4]:
I α g1 + hw (Ta − Tg1 ) + hra (Tsky − Tg 1 )
(1)
+ hr,g1,g 2 (Tg 2 − Tg1 ) + h f 1,g1 (T f 1 − Tg1 ) = 0
where the sky temperature can be calculated as:
Tsky = 0.0552Ta1.5 , the other parameters can be seen in Table I
and defined in equations (8)-(12).

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- The change in air temperature along the flow direction in - Radiation from the upper glass to the environment:
the first pass is owing to the convective heat exchange of
the airflow with the 2 glass covers: hra = σε g1 ( Tg12 + Tsky 2 ) (Tg1 + Tsky ) (8)

dT f1 Wh f 1,g1 (Tg1 − T f 1 ) + Wh f 1,g 2 (Tg 2 − T f 1 ) - Radiation between two glasses:

= (2)
dx & p
mc
Tg1 + Tg 2
hr,g1,g 2 = σ (Tg12 + Tg 2 2 ) (9)
- Similarly, the lower glass: 1 / ε g1 + 1 / ε g 2 − 1

I τ g1α g 2 + h f 1,g 2 (T f 1 − Tg 2 ) + h f 2 ,g 2 (T f 2 − Tg 2 ) - Radiation between the lower glazing cover and absorber
(3) surface:
+ hr,g1,g 2 (Tg1 − Tg 2 ) + hr,g 2 , p (Tp − Tg 2 ) = 0
Tg 2 + Tp
- The change in air temperature of the second pass: hr,g 2 , p = σ (Tg 2 2 + Tp 2 ) (10)
1 / εg2 +1 / ε p −1

dT f2 Wh f 2 ,g 2 (Tg 2 − T f 2 ) + Wh f 2 , p (Tp − T f 2 )
= (4) - Radiation heat transfer coefficient between the absorber
dx & p
mc surface and bottom plate:

- Absorber plate: Tb + Tp
hr,b, p = σ (Tb 2 + Tp 2 ) (11)
1 / εb + 1 / ε p − 1
I τ g1τ g 2 α p + h f 2 , p (T f 2 − Tp ) + hr,g 2 , p (Tg 2 − Tp )
(5) Convection heat transfer factor of the airflow in channels
+ h f 3 , p (T f 3 − Tp ) + hr,b, p (Tb − Tp ) = 0 may be computed from Dittus-Boelter formula [7]:

- The change in air temperature of the third pass: h f 1,g1 = 0.023Re0.8 Pr 0.4 k / De (12)

dT f3 Wh f 3 ,b (Tb − T f 3 ) + Wh f 3 , p (Tp − T f 3 ) where Re, Pr, and De are respectively Reynolds number,
= (6) Prandtl number, and equivalent diameter of airflow channel.
dx & p
mc
The parameters are defined as:
- The back plate where heat loss to the environment was
Re = ρDeV / µ (13)
neglected:

Pr = µc p / k (14)
h f 3,b (Tb − Tf 3 ) + hr,b,p ( −Tp + Tb ) = 0 (7)

Applied boundary conditions to the ODEs (2), (4), and (6) 4WD
De = (15)
can be defined as [6]: 2 (W + D )
Tf1 at x = 0 = Ta
Convection heat transfer factor of the wind above the glass
Tf1 at x = L = Tf2 at x = L 1 is evaluated by wind velocity (Vw) as [8]:

hw = 5.7 + 1.2Vw (16)

Mass flow rate of the airflow ( ), mass velocity (Go) and

the velocity of airflow (V) are given by:

m&
Go = (17)
LW

m& = WDρV (18)

The useful heat gain received from solar energy is

calculated from the inlet and outlet temperature difference
through SAH by:
Fig. 1. Triple-pass SAH with notations.
& p (To − Ta )
Q = mc (19)
Radiation heat transfer factor in the above correlations can
be calculated as:

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 From heat gain, the thermal performance of the SAH is Transmissivity of glass cover τg1=τg2=0.84
evaluated as follows: Wind velocity Vw=1 m/s
Increment in x coordinate ∆x=0.2 m
Stefan’s constant σ=5.67×10-8 W/m2 K4
Q
ηth = (20)
LWI III. SOLUTION PROCEDURE AND VALIDATION
The differential and nonlinear equations (1)-(7) need to be
To calculate the effective efficiency, the air pumping solved numerically. In this study, the system of Equations is
power should be calculated as follows: solved using the control volume method which divides the
computational domain into many cells [4, 10, 11]. This can be
∆P facilitated by using the integral function in Engineering
Pflow = m& (21) Equation Solver – EES (F-chart software) [12]. An algorithm
ρ
was illustrated in the heat transfer textbook of Klein and Nellis
[13]. Below is the code to solve the ODEs in EES. The exit air
where ∆P is the pressure difference of the air through the SAH temperature of the pass 1 and the temperature of the air
which includes the pressure drop due to friction and the entering the pass 2 are initially guessed. Iteration calculation
pressure drop due to 180° return: is performed until the error between these two temperatures is
approximately zero. The iteration loop was performed
∆P = ∆Psmooth + ∆Pbend (22) automatically in the EES software and reached to the error less
than 0.001°C.
The pressure loss due to friction: $integralTable x:DELTAx,T_f1,T_f2,T_f3,T_g1,T_g2,T_p,T_b
T_f1=T_a+integral(dTf1dx,x,0,L,DELTAx)
3L2
∆Psmooth = 2ρfV (23) T_f2=T_f2_o-integral(dTf2dx,x,0,L,DELTAx)
De
T_f3=T_f2_o+integral(dTf3dx,x,0,L,DELTAx)

Smooth duct friction factor can be given as [3]: error=abs(T_f1-T_f2)

Figure 2 demonstrates the verification of the airflow

f = 0.059 Re −0.2 (24) temperature field of double-pass solar air collector at 0.0121
kg/m2-s solved in this study and published data [4]. It can be
The pressure loss due to the 180° bend: seen that there is a very good agreement between the two
datasets. Therefore, the approach in this paper is accurate to
predict the temperature distribution in the air collector at any
V2 location.
∆Pbend = 2 K bend ρ (25)
2
90
The effective efficiency: Current work
Air temperature, °C

Ramani et al. [4]

Q − Pflow / Co 75
ηeff = (26)
LWI
60 Airflow in pass No. 2
where loss factor of the bend Kbend = 2.2 and the coefficient of
conversion of mechanical work to thermal energy Co = 0.2 [3, 45
9].
Table I presents the parameters entered into the 30 Airflow in pass No. 1
mathematical model where the mass velocity is varied to
investigate the temperature distribution and the efficiencies. 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
The thermophysical parameters of the air are taken at ambient Solar air heater length, m
temperature. The next section exhibits the method of solving
the system of equations to find the seven local temperatures Fig. 2. Verification of air temperature along the collector length with
and validation. published data [4].

TABLE I. INPUT PARAMETERS IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Parameter
Collector length
Collector width
Collector depth
Solar radiation
Ambient temperature
Mass velocity (Eq. (17))
Absorptivity of glass covers
Absorptivity of absorber surface
Emissivity of glass covers
Emissivity of absorber surface
Emissivity of back plate
Value The analysis of the temperature distribution at different air
L=2100 mm flows is shown in Figures 3-5. Seven temperatures of fluids
W=540 mm and plates are shown in figure 3 at the air flow rate of 0.01372
D=21 mm kg/s. It can be seen that the air temperature increases gradually
I=0.848 kW/m2 through the passes. The upper glass transfers heat to the air in
Ta=300 K
Go = 0.0121 – 0.07246 kg/m2 s
the first half of the SAH. But in the second half the
αg1=αg2=0.05 temperature of the upper glass is less than the air temperature
αp=0.92 (temperature cross). The air continues to increase its
εg1=εg2=0.92 temperature as it receives heat from the lower glass.
εp=0.92 Identically, the heat transfer mechanism takes place in the
εb=0.92 second pass. In third pass, the airflow absorbs thermal energy

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from the absorber surface and bottom plate. The differences in 45
Absorber plate
air temperature through the three passes are 9.6 K, 17.86 K,
and 12.61 K, respectively. Thus, the increase in airflow
temperature in the pass No. 2 is the biggest due to heat gain 40

Temperature, °C
from absorber plate and great heat transfer rate because of
high temperature difference. It can be clearly perceived that Back plate
the absorber surface temperature peaks in the center of the 35
SAH, i.e., x = 1 m. This is different from a double pass
collector which has shown that the air temperature increases
Glass 2
with the flow of air [4]. For a triple pass SAH as displayed in 30
Figure 1, the air temperature in third and second passes Air
increases in opposite directions. Hence the absorber plate
Glass 1
temperature peaks at a mid-plate position. The mean
25
temperature of absorber plate is 75.82°C at this flowrate. 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Similar behavior is also observed for the lower glass Collector length, m
temperature.
Fig. 5. Temperature distribution of air in three channels, plates, and glasses
80
Absorber plate at air mass flow rate of 0.06169 kg/s.

Back plate When increasing the air flow to 0.03969 kg/s as indicated
in Fig. 4, the average absorber plate temperature is reduced to
Temperature, °C

60 49.43°C so that both bottom plate temperature and glass

temperature decrease. This results in the upper glass
Glass 2 temperature being mostly lower than the air temperature in the
first pass. Unlike at lower flow, at this flow the temperature
40
rise of the air in second pass is greater than that of the first
pass. Hence the temperature of the lower glass increases with
the direction of air movement in the second pass. When
Glass 1
increasing air flow rate up to 0.06169 kg/s as shown in figure
Air 5, it is clear that upper glass temperature is lower than air
20
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 temperature. In other words, the air receives thermal energy
Collector length, m
from the lower glass, so the air temperature increases leading
to increase in heat loss by the upper glass. Thus, heat gain
Fig. 3. Temperature distribution of air in three channels, plates, and glasses
at air mass flow rate of 0.01372 kg/s.
behavior with air flow rate is slight increase at high air flow
rate.
50 0.66
Absorber plate

45 0.64
Temperature, °C

Back plate
0.62
Efficiencies

40

0.6
35
Glass 2 ηeff (Triple pass)
0.58
ηth (Triple pass)
30 Air ηeff (Double pass)
0.56
Glass 1 ηth (Double pass)

25 0.54
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
2
Collector length, m Go [kg/m -s]
Fig. 4. Temperature distribution of air in three channels, plates, and glasses Fig. 6. Efficiencies of multiple pass SAH with mass velocity.
at air mass flow rate of 0.03969 kg/s.
Figure 6 shows the thermal efficiency and effective
efficiency of double pass and triple pass collectors with the
same input parameters. It can be seen that the thermal
efficiency increases with the air flow rate because increasing
the flow rate increases the convective heat transfer coefficient
so the useful heat gain increases. At low flows, the thermal
efficiency of triple pass SAH is significantly larger than that
of the double pass SAH. However, at high flow rates, the
difference in thermal efficiency is not significant because the
temperature of the upper glass does not play a role in heat
transfer to the air in the first pass as analyzed above. Effective
efficiency reaches to an extreme at a certain air flow rate. This
is because the heat gain can be enhanced but the pumping

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power increases sharply with the air flow rate. The maximum
efficiency of TPSAH of 64% can be seen at 0.04 kg/m2-s. The
effective efficiency of TPSAH is greater than that of double
pass SAH up to 0.05 kg/m2-s. TPSAH offers heat transfer
enhancement but its configuration notably increases the air
pressure loss penalty because the air travels in longer path and
more bend.
V. CONCLUSSION
A 1D mathematical model was established and
numerically solved to find the temperature distribution of the
fluids and surfaces of a triple-pass solar air heater in this study.
Approach has been validated against published data. The main
results drawn from this study are as follows:
• Control volume method-based computer program has
effectively proven to solve the seven local temperatures of a
triple-pass SAH.
• The thermal efficiency at low air flow rate of the triple
pass air collector is significantly larger than that of the double
pass collector.
• When mass velocity is greater than 0.05 kg/m2-s, double
pass SAH should be used.
• The maximum effective efficiency of 64% of triple pass
SAH is at air mass velocity of 0.04 kg/m2-s.
• For the triple pass SAH, the absorber plate temperature
peaks in the middle of the plate. The lower glass temperature
peaks at its middle position when the air flow rate is small.
The future work may be consideration on local heat
transfer coefficients and temperature-dependent
thermophysical properties which eliminate limitations of the
current 1D modelling.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research is funded by the Vietnam National
University Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) under grant
number B2021-20-06.
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