Experimental method

4
Experimental study is carried out to have more practical insight of the thermal-hydraulic phe-
nomena taking place in a SAH-duct as shown in Figure 4.1 and Figure 4.2. It is also used to
validate the numerical results obtained in the previous chapter. Experimental method chapter
can be broadly divided into four major sections; fabrication, data instrumentation, data reduc-
tion, and data uncertainty. First section, fabrication is further divided into four major construction
part of the experimental setup; SAH-duct, absorber plate with rib-roughness, heater plate, and
blower. Second section deals with the instrumentation process. Three types of variables have been
recorded through various measuring instruments; first temperature via thermocouples, air flow by
venturimeter, and pressure drop in test section of SAH-duct by micromanometer. Finally calibra-
tion of thermocouples and coefficient of discharge of venturimeter is discussed. In data reduction
section, formulae to record temperature, air mass flow rate, and pressure drop is explained to
obtain final results in non-dimension variables like Nu, f and THPP. In data uncertainty section,
four non-dimensional variables are taken to find uncertainty in their values which ultimately define
uncertainty in the results of experimental study.

4.1 Fabrication of experimental setup

SAH-duct of rectangular cross-section, absorber plate, heater plate, and blower are four major
parts of the experimental setup which are discussed in the following subsections. Table4.1 shows
the input parameters and geometrical dimensions of the SAH-duct.

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 Table 4.1 Range of different geometrical parameters of the SAH-duct

Parameter Range
Heat flux, Q 1000 W/m2
Reynolds number, Re 3000-15000
Entrance length of SAH-duct, L 0.64 m
Test section length of SAH-duct, L 1.50 m
Entrance length of SAH-duct, L 0.3 m
Width of SAH-duct, W 0.3 m
Height of SAH-duct, H 0.025 m
Aspect ratio, AR 12

Figure 4.1 Schematic digram of the complete experimental setup

Figure 4.2 Working experimental setup of SAH-duct

4.1.1 Solar air heater duct

It is fabricated as per the ASHRAE standards 93[18] mentioned in the it handbook of standards
values required for carrying out the experimental study of a SAH-duct setup in indoor simulated
environment with heating source either a nichrome wire or halogen bulbs. The cross-sectional
schematic and working diagrams of SAH-duct duct is shown in Figure 4.3 and Figure 4.4. It has
complete length of 2.44 m, of which, 0.64 m is provided for entrance section, 1.5 m for test section,
and 0.3 m for exit section. The entrance is necessary to have fully developed flow in the test
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Figure 4.3 Schematic view of cross sectional view of SAH-duct showing dimensions of its parts

section, since fluid flow in a duct takes certain length to get developed or to have well defined
profile, which can be of parabola shape in laminar flow and logarithmic shape in turbulent flow.
Developed flow is required in test section as the correlations available in literature exists only for
developed flow, for developing flow, uncertainty of velocity profile is a big issue. In test section,
all experimental studies are performed, with attached thermocouples and micromanometer for
temperature and pressure measurements. The exit section nullifies exit or end effect of fluid flow
in test section. The rectangular SAH-duct duct has four sides; three sides are insulated and made
up of wooden ply sheets. A layer of thin sun-mica sheet is further provided over insulated sides
to have smooth surface to have minimum frictional losses. Fourth side is absorber plate made up
of metal which is in present case and usually aluminium covered by further strong insulation of
glass-wool which is discussed in detail in next sections.

4.1.2 Absorber plate with rib-roughness

Figure 4.5 shows the V-shape repeated rib roughness over absorber plate. Absorber plate has the
same dimensions as that of SAH-duct. Its complete length is 2.44 m, of which 0.640 m, 1.5 m,
and 0.3 m lies in the entrance, test, and exit sections respectively. Its part in entrance and exit
section is kept smooth and its function is only to cover duct to provide passage to air flow. The
test section is roughened with V-shape ribs, and arc-shape ribs. The schematic diagrams of both
ribs have been discussed in the numerical method chapter, where angle of attack is 600 , rib height
is 2 mm, pitch is 1.5 mm, gap is of 1.5 mm, and only single gap is provided in both limbs of a
V-shape ribs along the width span of absorber plate. In fabrication, first the required geometry
of arc-shape rib is drawn on the absorber plate, then it is cut with sheet-metal in drawn shape.
In V-shape, sheet metal strips are cut on an extra aluminium sheet, which is cut with pliers after

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 Figure 4.4 Cross sectional view of SAH-duct

Figure 4.5 Absorber plate having V-shape rib-roughness

fixing in bench-vice. Finally these ribs are mounted over the test section part of the absorber
plate with the help of epoxy-resin. Thermocouples are attached over this test part of the absorber
plate to measure three kind of temperature; inlet, outlet and average surface temperature which
will be discussed in the instrumentation section of this chapter.

4.1.3 Heater plate

One may use natural sunlight or halogen bulb as a heat source, then top surface will be made up
of glass, which can be single or double glazed, bottom surface will be metal absorber plate and
remaining two sides will be insulated or made up of wood. Sometime researchers use black-painted
absorber plate to maximize heat absorption. If the heat source is electric heater of nichrome
wire, then top surface will be the absorber metal plate insulated with 50-80 mm glass wool and
remaining three sides will be either insulated and made up of wood. An aluminum plate of size
1500 mm×300 mm×2 mm is placed as absorber plate. Figure 4.6 and Figure 4.7 shows the heater
plate assembly.A heater plate was fabricated using nichrome wire, mica sheet, and asbestos sheet.
In construction, both mica and asbestos sheets are taken of dimension equals to that of absorber
plate to cover it completely which is, 1500mm length and 300 mm width. Nichrome wires in five
parallel loops of equal length are mounted over the mica sheet of 2 mm thickness to get uniform
70
 Figure 4.6 Schematic diagram of heater plate

Figure 4.7 A heater plate to be attached in soar air heater

heat flux on the absorber plate. Asbestos sheet of 2 mm thickness is placed on the back of the
mica sheet for its insulation to prevent back heat losses. Heat flux can be changed with the help
of auto=transformer or variac of 10 A rating. In the present study heat flux is kept constant at
1000 W/m2 . Glass wool of thickness 80 mm and wooden sheet of thickness 12 mm is provided in
the back of the asbestos sheet for further improvement in insulation. A thin layer of plaster of
paris is also coated to prevent from catching fire.

4.1.4 Blower and its parts

Blower is used to either suck or blow the air through SAH-duct. It is connected to SAH-duct via
funnel like shape connector made up of galvanised iron sheet as shown in Figure 4.8 or Figure 4.2.
The connector is designed in such a way that it has round-like shape to accommodate circular pipe
of the blower on one end and rectangular shaped cross-section on another end to join it with the
low depth solar air duct air passage. In between connector and blower, a venturimeter is provided
to measure air mass flow rate which will be discussed in detail in instrumentation section. Blower
mainly have rotor blades mounted on a shaft which is rotated by a DC motor. To run a DC motor
a AC to DC converter was used as shown in Figure 4.8. During the operation, blower runs at very
high speed which can be regulated by increasing and decreasing voltage via AC-DC converter.
The rotational speed of the rotor blade of the blower ultimately varies the required air mass flow
rate in the SAH-duct as per the Reynolds number. At high running speed blower causes extreme

71
 Figure 4.8 A blower connected to SAH-duct via funnel shape connector.

vibration in foundation. Hence a foundation made up of thick wood with vibration isolator at its
bottom is provided to minimize its adverse effect on the operation of setup.

4.2 Instrumentation
In instrumentation section various technical details, attachment in setup, and operation of the
instruments used in present experimental study to measure temperature, pressure drop and air
mass flow rate are discussed. The temperature measurement is done with thermocouples mounted
over inlet, outlet and absorber plate. Pressure drop in the test section is done by micromanometer
of least count 0.1 mm of water. The air mass flow rate is measure by venturimeter which is attached
to U-tube manometer. All these instruments are discussed in details in following subsections.

4.2.1 Temperature measurement

Temperature measurement is required at three places; inlet and outlet of the test section, and
surface temperature of the absorber plate in a SAH-duct as shown in Figure 4.9 and Figure 4.10.
Selection and placement of temperature sensor on absorber plate, inlet and outlet of duct is a
challenge as these are susceptible to damage at connection point. Each sensor comes with its
specifications, range, pros and cons, but mostly J, K and T-type thermocouples are used because
these are cheap and measure within acceptable limits of accuracy. These sensors can be placed
on absorber plate by creating a cavity and place tip of sensor inside it and cover with epoxy
resin, soldered with silver paint on the tip and remaining part is supported with epoxy resin.
In another method of mounting thermocouples, the hole of suitable diameter is drilled and joint
connected bolt is inserted in that hole and tightened with nut and washer as shown in Figure
4.11 Epoxy resin has bad thermal conductivity and may damage joint of two different metals,
soldering can also cause malfunctioning of the joint, bolt may cause undesirable roughness and
resistance to air flow as it suspends in the duct through absorber plate. For inlet and outlet
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 Figure 4.9 A schematic diagram of the thermocouple layout placed over the absorber plate

Figure 4.10 Mounting of thermocouples over absorber plate

temperature measurement, three T-type thermocouples are mounted at start and end of the test
section, reading is displayed via temperature indicators. Reading of three thermocouples, its
mean value is taken to get single value at inlet and outlet of the test-section. Four thermocouples
along the width-span with single thermocouple in center is mounted in five consecutive series
to give temperature of twenty five different positions of the absorber plate. At the end, twenty
four different temperature values displayed by the absorber plate, its mean value is taken to give
single value of temperature. Thermocouples are calibrated before measurement and its details are
discussed in calibration subsection.

4.2.2 Air flow measurement

The air mass flow rate is measured with the help of venuturimeter attached with the U-tube
manometer as shown in Figure 4.12. A venturimeter is nothing but a piece of pipe with converging
section upstream, a diverging section downstream, and throat section in between. Two locations
for pressure measurement are made, one at pipe another at throat. The other ends are connected
via tubes to the manometer. The pressure difference is represented in manometer by the difference
of water level which has been discussed in the data reduction section. Special care and attention

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 Figure 4.11 Close up view of mounting of a thermocouple

Figure 4.12 Funnel shape connector to join circular blower pipe to rectangular cross-section
SAH-duct of high aspect ratio

should be given to air trapped inside tubes resulting in bubble formation. The venturimeter is
also calibrated to find the coefficient of discharge which is reported in calibration part.

4.2.3 Pressure measurement

Air has inherently very less density, hence small mass of it is contained in a unit volume. So when
it flows through the test section part of the SAH-duct, the pressure drop that takes place is quite
less. With normal water based or mercury manometer it is not feasible or possible to measure it.
So a digital micromanometer as shown in Figure 4.13 is used here with least count of 0.01 mm

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Figure 4.13 Micromanometer used for pressure drop measurement in test section of SAH-duct

of water column. In measurement process, two locations are selected; one at inlet and another
at outlet of the test section. On connecting tubes of the micromanometer the resulted pressure
difference will be displayed on its screen.

4.2.4 Calibration
In calibration of venturimeter its coefficient of discharge is calculated and compared against the
values by standard Pitot tube, which gives its average coefficient of discharge as 0.96 as shown in
Figure 4.14
Although calibrated thermocouples were purchased from the market but to be sure, T-type
thermocouples of good quality are calibrated against the known temperature with the help of
multimeter.

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 Figure 4.14 Variation of coefficient of discharge with Reynolds number and comparison from
values obtained from Pitot tube

4.3 Data reduction for experimental study

In the experimental study various data related to thermal and hydraulic performance of air flow
over the heated absorber plate installed in the SAH-duct are measured and recorded to calculate
the Nusselt number and friction factor respectively to study the effect of the geometrical variable
like relative pitch P/e and various roughness like transverse, V-shape, arc-shape, and inclined ribs.
Nusselt number shows the heat transfer: larger the Nusselt number larger is the heat transfer.
It is calculated with help of measured temperature at various mass flow rate. Mass flow rate
is calculated at connecting pipe with the help of venturimeter and manometer. Temperature
at absorber plate, inlet and outlet of the duct are calculated with the help of thermocouples as
discussed in the previous chapter. These values are required to calculate total heat gain by the air
when it has travelled through the whole length of the setup. Following standard formula can be
used for data reduction to obtain final results in the form of friction factor and Nusselt number:
r
2ρ∆P
m = Cd A0 (4.1)
α2 − 1
where, m is the mass flow rate, Cd is the coefficient of discharge which through calibration
of venturimeter gives value of 0.97, ∆P = 9·81ρm ∆hsinθ gives the pressure drop across the
connecting pipe, as the manometer is vertical so θ = 900 .

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 Now, in temperature measurement, Tp is average temperature of absorber plate which is cal-
culate by taking average of 24 thermocouples placed on it as:

T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 + ·········T24
Tp = (4.2)
24

The inlet and outlet temperature at the test section is also calculated in similar manner which
can be use for the calculation of mean fluid temperature as:

Ti + To
Tf = (4.3)
2

Finally using above measured data we can calculate heat gain by air while flowing through the
test section as:
Q = mCp (To − Ti ) (4.4)

where, Cp is specific heat capacity of air Under perfect insulation this heat gain must be equal to
the heat loss by the absorber plate to the air flow via convection which can be written as:

Q = hAp (Tp − Tf ) (4.5)

Where, Ap is the absorber plate area W × H (in this case, 300 mm×20 mm) h is the heat transfer
coefficient which can be reduced in the following form;

Q
h= (4.6)
Ap (Tp − Tf )

Now, these values can be used to measure non-dimensional terms like Nusselt number (Nu) and
friction factor (f ) which is given by:
hDh
Nu = (4.7)
k
And
∆P0 Dh
f= (4.8)
2ρLV 2
4W H m
Where, Dh = is hydraulic diameter of SAH-duct and V = is velocity of the air
2(W + H) ρW H
flow and ρ is density of air. For calculation all air properties are taken as bulk mean temperature.
Now the thermal hydraulic performance parameter (THPP) can be written as;

N ur
N us
T HP P = (4.9)
fr
fs
Where s and r subscript are used to denote the respective properties in the smooth and roughened
SAH-duct respectively.

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4.4 Uncertainty analysis
Uncertainty analysis or error analysis of each instrument is done to find deviation in the measured
data during experiment that can effect accuracy of the final results. The error should be kept as
low as possible and it should be within acceptable range to have minimal effect of validity of the
final results. It helps in selection of the suitable instruments. In present study, micro-manometer,
U-tube manometer, linear scale and varnier calipers are used so their least count will be considered
for error analysis. The method proposed by Kline and McClintok is followed which states:
if a parameter is calculated using certain measured quantities as,

y = y(x1 , x2 , x3 , ············, xn ) (4.10)

the uncertainty in y is given by:

δy δy δy δy δy
= [( δx1 )2 + ( δx2 )2 + ( δx3 )2 + ··············· + ( δxn )2 +]0 ·5 (4.11)
y δx1 δx2 δx3 δxn

δy
where δxi , δy, and are the error, absolute uncertainty, and relative uncertainty in the measure-
y
ments of variable xi .

Table 4.2 Range of different parameters

Variable(s) Instrument Least count Uncertainty

Length L, duct-width W Linear scale 1 mm ±1 mm
Duct-height D, pitch P, Vent. dia D Vernier call. 0.1 mm ±0.1 mm
Rib height e Screw gauge 0.01 mm ±0.05 mm
Temperature T thermocouple 0.1 0 C ±0.25 0 C
Atm pressure (Patm ) Mercury baro. 0.05 mm ±0.05 mm of Hg
Press drop in vent. ∆ P U-tube mano. 1 mm of water ±1 mm
Press drop in test sec (∆ P0 ) U-tube mano. 1 mm of water ±1 mm
Current and volt Multimeter 0.01 A and 0.1 V ±0.01 A and ±0.1 V

Above measured data can be used to derive h, Nu, and f.

Heat transfer coefficient

Q Q
h= =
Ap (Tp − Tf ) Ap ∆T

δh δQ δA δ(∆T ) 2 0·5
= [( )2 + ( )2 + ( )] (4.12)
h Q A ∆T

δh
= [(0·0358)2 + (0·0031)2 + (0·02)2 ]0·5
h

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0.04155 or ±4.155%

Nusselt number
hDh
Nu =
k

δN u δh δD 2 δk
= [( )2 + ( ) + ( )2 ]0·5 (4.13)
Nu h D k

δN u 0·00001 2 0·5
= [(0·04155)2 + (0·00307)2 + ( )]
Nu 0·02659
maximum uncertainty value for0.04166 or 4.166%

Reynolds number
ρV Dh
Re =
µ

δRe δV δρ δD 2 δµ
= [( )2 + ( )2 + ( ) + ( )2 ]0·5 (4.14)
Re V ρ D µ

δRe 0·001 2 0·5

= [(0·02131)2 + (0·00694)2 + (0·00307)2 + ( )]
Re 1·863
maximum uncertainty value for 0.02262 or 2.262%

Friction factor
∆P0 Dh
f=
2ρLV 2
δf δV δρ δD 2 δL δ∆P0 2 0·5
= [( )2 + ( )2 + ( ) + ( )2 + ( ) +] (4.15)
f V ρ D L ∆P0

δf 1 2 0·01 2 0·5
= [(0·02131)2 + (0·00694)2 + (0·00307)2 + ( ) +( ) +] (4.16)
f 150 0·5
maximum uncertainty value for friction factor is 0.0302 or 3.02%

4.5 Experimental procedure

All parts of the experimental setup and all parts of the instrumentation are checked before starting
the set up for safe operation of it. First heater plate is switched on by variac and adjusted to
1000 W/m2 . The blower is started to the desired air mass flow rate with help of changing input
voltage of AC-DC converter. It is kept to run for at least one hour to get stable values of the
all instrumentations like; thermocouples, venturimeter and micromanometer. Air mass flow rate
is changed in six sets as per the Reynolds number 3000-15000. After taking all reading of the

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smooth SAH-duct, rib roughened ducts are studied with changing the absorber plate with similar
procedure as discussed for the smooth duct. In reading, temperature at inlet and outlet of the
duct is measured, pressure drop across the test section duct is measured, and mass flow rate at
the venturimeter is measured. All reading are further used to derive non dimensional parameters
like Nu, f, and THPP.

80