The thermal performance of the solar collector for air heating purpose is investigated with and without packed bed through experimental and theoretical methods. A simple flat plate solar air heater was developed with 2m² corrugated absorber plate and integrated with porous pebble bed in the airflow path to act as a sensible heat storage medium. The experimental studies were carried out for different mass flow rates of air from 0.014 to 0.087 kg/s with the increment of 0.0095 kg/s. Steady-state theoretical models have been established to predict the thermal performance of the air heaters and the results indicated that they are well enough to predict the outlet air temperature with acceptable error percentage. The collector with packed bed storage medium is more efficient than without packed bed in terms of energy efficiency as well as in reducing temperature fluctuation of air at the outlet of the collector. The energy and exergy efficiency of the collector with packed bed veried from 20.35% to 50.92% and +3.97% to −2.807% for the airflow rates 0.014 kg/s to 0.087 kg/s respectively. Solar collectors with packed bed are capable to deliver the hot air in the range of 45 to 60 °C for a longer period and which can be preferred for achieving a better quality of the dried products as well as for space heating applications.

通过实验和理论方法研究了有或没有填充床时用于空气加热的太阳能收集器的热性能。开发了一个简单的平板太阳能空气加热器，面积为2m ²波纹状吸收板，并在气流路径中与多孔卵石床集成在一起，用作显热存储介质。对空气的不同质量流量从0.014到0.087 kg / s进行了实验研究，增量为0.0095 kg / s。建立了稳态理论模型来预测空气加热器的热性能，结果表明它们足以预测出空气温度，且误差百分比可以接受。在能量效率以及减少收集器出口处的空气温度波动方面，具有填充床存储介质的收集器比没有填充床的收集器更有效。对于气流速率为0.014 kg / s到0的情况，带有填充床的集热器的能量和火用效率从20.35％到50.92％和+ 3.97％到-2.807％。分别为087 kg / s。带有填充床的太阳能集热器能够在45至60°C的温度范围内长期输送热空气，对于获得更好的干燥产品质量以及用于空间加热应用，它是首选。