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Keywords
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porous medium, perturbation method, radiation to conduction parameter, porous shape
parameter, collector efficiency factor
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Abstract
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In the present study, heat transfer in a thin flat-plate solar collector with a fully saturated porous channel is investigated
analytically by considering convection-radiation heat transfer. The fluid flow has been modeled by the Brinkman-
Forchheimer extended Darcy model. The heat transfer equation has been solved analytically based on the perturbation
method. The temperature profile and Nusselt number have been extracted and then the collector thermal performance
has been analyzed for the first time. The results show that, although the radiation and porous shape parameters have
considerable effects on the Nusselt number and collector thermal performance, the effect of radiation is more noteworthy
than the porous shape parameter. The Nusselt number increases up to two times with an increase in the radiation
parameter. In order to establish a balance between the pressure drop increase and heat transfer improvement due to
porous matrix, these parameters were evaluated simultaneously. It is observed that the change in the flow pressure
drop is negligible in small values of porous shape parameter
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