Experimental and numerical thermal performance in solar receiver heat exchanger with trapezoidal louvered winglet and wavy groove

A numerical and experimental study on the thermal–hydraulic performance of a solar receiver heat exchanger (SRH) equipped with a newly designed longitudinal-vortex generator, namely, trapezoidal louvered winglet and wavy groove placed on the absorber has been carried out. The relevant parameters included three pitch ratios of winglets/grooves (P/H = PR = 1, 1.5 and 2), four winglet blockage ratios (b/H = BR = 0.3–0.45) at a single attack angle of winglet/groove, α = 45°. The experimental outcome showed that the trapezoidal winglet (TW) together with the wavy groove at PR = 1, BR = 0.45 gives the greatest friction factor and the heat transfer around 108.1 and 9.35 times over the smooth SRH channel, respectively while that at PR = 1.5, BR = 0.4 provides the optimal thermal performance at about 2.6. To increase further the performance, the TW at optimal conditions was modified by punching the TW at its centroid to be a square-hole and then covering the back-end hole partially like a louver, called the trapezoidal louvered winglet (TLW). The TLW elements were mounted on the grooved absorber plate with eight louver angles (θ = 0°–90°). The investigation indicated that among the louver angles, the θ = 20° yields the greatest heat transfer up to 9.18 times above the smooth SRH whilst its friction loss is lower than the θ = 0°(solid-winglet). Hence, the TLW and wavy groove at θ = 20° provided the maximum thermal–hydraulic performance around 2.76. To understand the flow and thermal patterns, a 3D flow computation was also carried out and their results were validated with available measurements.