Study of three-dimensional natural convection and entropy generation in an inclined solar collector equipped with partitions

Three-dimensional natural convection in an inclined solar collector equipped with partitions has been investigated numerically. The presence of partitions improves the performances of the collector by increasing the heat transfer near the absorber. A parametric study was done for various partitions length and Rayleigh numbers, while Prandtl number and inclination angle were fixed at 0.71 and 45 degrees, respectively. Results are reported in terms of isosurfaces of temperature, isotherms, particles trajectories, velocity vector projection, average Nusselt number along the absorber plate and entropies generation contours.