nvestigation of the Impact of Utilizing Lauric Acid and Paraffin Wax as PCM in a Single - Pass Solar Air Heater: Experimental Study

Abstract

This current investigation involved an experimental inspection of adding Lauric acid (LA) above the absorber surface of solar air heater (SAH) in comparison with SAH integrated with paraffin wax and traditional SAH to evaluate the thermal performance of the SAH. To assess the efficacy of adding LA, all three SAHs operate under identical operating conditions. In the improved SAH model, LA is positioned above the absorber plate, and paraffin wax is incorporated above the absorber plate, whereas the conventional SAH model depicts the standard configuration. Data was gathered in Mosul City, Iraq, for January 18 and February 12, 25, 2025, with experiments performed at a constant air mass flow rate of 0.02223 kg/s. The findings confirms that the thermal performance of improved LA SAH is better than enhanced paraffin wax SAH and traditional SAH by 7.4% and 102% for January 18, and by 8.9% and 93.9% for February 12, and by 8.96% and 97.5% for February 25 respectively. The traditional SAH model records efficiency of 84%, 82%, and 83.5%, for 18 Jan, 12 and 25 Feb., respectively. The findings indicate a substantial maximum temperature differential attained by the enhanced SAH model utilizing (LA) and paraffin wax in comparison to the conventional SAH model.