Thermo-hydrodynamic Airflow Behavior Analysis in Solar Chimney Device

A numerical methodology has been developed to analyze the thermo-hydrodynamic aspect of airflow occurring in solar chimney power plants (SCPP) according to some dominant parameters. The general curvilinear coordinates finite volume method (GCCFVM), which is necessary in the case of turbulent flow through complex geometries, is used in this work. The governing equations describing the steady state turbulent fluid flow are solved numerically using this technique. It is shown that the chimney tower dimensions control directly the hydrodynamic field. However, the collector dimensions control directly the thermal field and indirectly the hydrodynamic field. It is demonstrated that the solar radiation influences strongly and positively the thermo-hydrodynamic field by increasing the mass flow rate. The mass flow decreases with the increase of the ambient temperature and then the system is more efficient with low ambient temperature. Indeed, the mass flow rate increases from 0.8 kg/s up to approximately 2 kg/s when the solar radiation varies between 200 W/m2 and 1000 W/m2 for fixed ambient temperature value of 30 °C. When ambient temperature increases from 10 °C up to 50 °C, the mass flow rate decreases slightly and in a linear manner from 1.7 kg/s to 1.5 kg/s for fixed solar radiation intensity value of 600 W/m2. Contrasting to other studies, conclusion based on simplified analytical models, ambient temperature affects adversely the performance of a SCPP in decreasing the mass flow rate. This conclusion should be taken into consideration when analyzing models dedicated to the prediction of solar chimney power plant performance.