Experimental study of the effect of adding prismatic fin to the air flow under v-corrugated absorber plate for solar air heater performance

One of the easiest alternative energy to get in Indonesia is solar energy. Solar energy can be applied to solar air heater in many industries. With using the radiation of solar energy to be absorb by absorber plate, solar air heater transfers heat in convection to the fluid under the absorber plate. Thermal efficiency of solar air collector can be improved by increasing the absorption area wider by adding prismatic triangle fin. Experimental sets to test the effect of fin addition to solar collector’s performance and efficiency. The experiment uses v-corrugated absorber plate and 30° bill shaped obstacle with fin addition. The geometry of the fins is prismatic triangle fin where fin thickness is 3 mm, with 0.5L spacing between obstacles. Intensity of radiation are varied from 431; 575; 719 W/m2, respectively, and mass flow rate are varied from 0.002; 0.004; 0.006; and 0.008 kg/s, respectively. The result of experimental study, the highest efficiency is 91.77 % achieved by 0.008 kg/s mass flow rate and radiation intensity 431.372 W/m2.