Design, build and test of solar thermal air heating system with application

The adverse effects on the environment that are associated with the use of fossil fuels has promoted the research and adoption of alternative fuels such as wind and solar. The high costs associated with the purchase of fossil fuels have been another factor that has led to increased use of solar energy in the past decade. This project aims to design and build solar thermal air heating system for education purpose to teach engineering students as well as for researchers at Murdoch University. This will help to create a greater understanding of the different aspects of the solar air-heating system operation. A mathematical model was created in excel spreadsheets so that the solar air-heating system could be tested so as get an idea of what the actual system would produce regarding maximum temperature and energy. From the results that were generated, it was observed that the maximum temperature varied depending on the period of the year. It was also observed that changing the configurations of the system resulted in different outlet temperatures. For example inclusion of the recycle effect in collector led to a significant increase in the outlet temperature of the collector; the temperature increased from 290C to 370C. Incorporation of the recycle effect in the oven resulted in even higher temperature gains, with the temperature rising to 51%. The percentage of the recycle effect was also observed to affect the outlet temperature, increasing the recycle percentage from 30% to 50% led to higher temperatures in all the tested cases