International Journal of Thermal Technologies E-ISSN 2277 – 4114 ©2018 INPRESSCO ® , All Rights Reserved Available at http://inpressco.com/category/ijtt/ Research Article 11| International Journal of Thermal Technologies, Vol.8, No.1 (March 2018) Examination of Thermal Performance for Solar Air Heater with Modified Absorber Rakesh Kushwaha †* , Ambreesh Prasad Shukla † , Bhupendra Gupta † and Anand Bisen ‡ † Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jabalpur Engineering College, Jabalpur-482011, India ‡ Mechanical Engineering, KNPC, Jabalpur, India Received 02 Jan 2018, Accepted 05 March 2018, Available online 10 March 2018, Vol.8, No.1 (March 2018) Abstract Everyday sun delivers enormous amount of energy towards earth. Solar energy received by earth in a day is equal to total energy consumed by us in whole year. Plenty of research has been done in utilizing solar energy efficiently. Solar air heater is always a hot topic between the researchers. Different configurations of absorber plate with roughness has been prepared and tested to increase efficiency. In this article, a Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis of solar air heater having triangular shaped bodies place over the absorber plate had been performed. Enhancement in the performance of solar air heater is resulted. Keywords: Solar Energy, Solar Air Heater, Performance, Efficiency. 1. Introduction 1 Every day, the sun radiates a massive amount of energy called solar energy. It radiates more energy in one day than the world uses in one year. This energy comes on the earth surface from within the sun itself. The sun is just like a big gas ball which is made up mostly of hydrogen and helium gas. The sun makes energy within its inner core in a process which is known as nuclear fusion. The sun energy takes a little over eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles to Earth. Solar energy travels at the speed of light, or 186,000 miles per second, or 3.0 x 10 8 meters per second. Only a small part of the visible radiant energy (light) that the sun emits into space ever reaches the Earth, but that is more than enough to supply all our energy needs. Every hour huge amount of solar energy reaches on the Earth surface to supply our nation’s energy needs for a year. Solar energy is measured as a renewable energy source due to this fact. Today, people use solar energy to heat buildings and water and to generate electricity. Thermal analysis can be used to determine inoculants performance, apart from the traditional usage of thermal analysis to determine the percentage of carbon equivalent liquid’s, carbon and silicon levels, it can also be used to monitor metallurgical processes and identify potential problems areas such as low nodule count, under-cooled graphite and carbide/chill propensity (Udroiu, 2002), (Corneli, et al, 2004), (Seidu, 2008). It can be used to predict iron shrinkage tendency and help the foundry to control scrap. *Corresponding author: Rakesh Kushwaha DOI: https://doi.org/10.14741/ijtt/v.8.1.3 2. Applications of Solar Energy 1. Industrial purposes: solar energy is used for air pre- heating for combustion processes, it means that thousands of applications such as drying minerals, coal, paper, bricks, food industry products, etc. mainly the drying of brown coal would be very important for power plants. 2. Crop drying: Solar energy is also used for drying of food products like grains, fruit, vegetables, meat, etc. Important benefits can be gained by harvesting the crop early and drying it with solar heat to protect it from rodents, mildew, etc. and to free the land for a second, brief crop. 3. Community and commercial purposes: Another use of solar energy for space heating for public buildings, office buildings, shopping centers. 4. Camp or camping purposes: Solar energy can also be used for space heating for emergency relief camps or military camps .space heating for recreational camping and expeditions in cold climate. 5. Solar Electricity: Solar energy can also be used to produce electricity. Two ways to produce electricity from solar energy are photovoltaic and solar thermal systems. Sometimes photovoltaic cells are called PV cells or solar cells. We are probably familiar with photovoltaic cells. Solar-powered toys, calculators, and roadside telephone call boxes all use solar cells to convert sunlight into electricity.