Introduction

Hello! I am a research fellow at the Hydro and Renewable Energy Department, IIT Roorkee. I am working under Prof. R. P. Saini on the Performance Investigation of Corrugated Double Pass Solar Air Heater with PCM-based Thermal Energy Storage. I am awarded with prime minister's research fellowship in July 2021.

Energy is the most important sector in the world. To meet our energy demand, energy is generated from various energy sources such as non-renewable sources (coal, oil, and natural gas, etc.) and renewable sources (wind, solar, biomass, etc.). However, most of the energy is generated by using non-renewable energy sources. Due to non-renewable energy sources, the large amount of CO2 emits into the atmosphere causes global warming and increases pollution.

Solar energy is a high potential renewable energy source that is freely available and non-pollutant. The solar air heater is the solar collector that captures solar energy and converts this captured energy to thermal energy for various applications such as drying, space heating, air conditioning, etc. However, solar air heaters have two drawbacks: poor convective heat transfer coefficient between the air and absorber plate and discontinued supply of energy due to the intermittent nature of solar energy. To overcome this drawback, solar air heaters with artificial roughness and latent thermal energy storage must be investigated. Very few research has been carried out in this area, so the CFD simulation with experimental validation should be required to determine the thermo-hydraulic performance of the solar air heaters.