Effects of a fin on the wall of the air channel on the performance of a trombe wall for natural heating

A Trombe wall can be installed in buildings to reduce electricity consumption. Trombe walls are designed to absorb and store solar radiation. By thermal effects, cool air enters the air channel from the inlet and is heated during the channel’s passage. The warm air rises and is fed back into the building to achieve energy efficiency. In this study, an investigation on the induced flow rate and temperature rise was carried out with a fin’s presence by a numerical method based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique. The location and length of the fin were changed to improve the system performance. This work demonstrated that an increase of 16° C in temperature at the outlet can be achieved with a distance of 0.1 m between the fin and the inlet. The fin added inside the Trombe wall channel is an approach to achieve thermal comfort in sustainable building design.