Thermal energy transfer in the atmosphere occurs from a high temperature zone to a low one by means of convective vortices where mechanical energy is produced. There are two ways of driving vertical flow in the core of a vortex: (1) by the direct action of buoyancy acting on hot air and (2) by producing a vertical pressure gradient along the axis of a vortex because of core development involving the lateral spread of the vortex with height. In particular, it indicates that the intensity of convective vortices depends on the depth of the convective layer via thermodynamic efficiency, the enthalpy perturbation across them, and the existence of sources of vorticity. The atmospheric vortex engine (AVE) is a device for producing an artificial vortex. The operation of AVE is based on the fact that the atmosphere is heated from the bottom and cooled at the top. By artificial vortex generation, it is aimed to eliminate the physical solar updraft tower and reduce the capital cost of solar chimney power plants. This paper reviews natural convective vortices and vortex creation via physical principles of vortex generation. Vortex analysis and modelling are presented. Furthermore, a new model of a solar vortex engine (SVE) is proposed and discussed. An idea on utilizing the solar energy as the heat source for establishing the vortex and operating the SVE model is adopted. The SVE model is feasible and promising for electrical power generation.

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The behaviour of artificially generated vortex by solar utilization is not well understood, as it is compressible, turbulent and 3-D. The present paper is aimed to simulate and analyse a new solar updraft power system, named vortex generation engine (VGE) to provide basic understanding of the artificial vortex. The main focus is on the effect of the upper plate diameter on the vortex structure. The simulation was carried out by CFD using ANSYS FLUENT 15. The modelled engine has 1.0 m outer diameter, 0.6 m height and 8 slots on the circumferential of the VGE for the air flow from the solar collector zone to the engine zone. The numerical procedure was validation by comparing the predicted temperature results with experimental measurements. The results have demonstrated that the upper hole of the VGE has considerable effect on the vortex generation. When the diameter of the upper hole increased from 0.3 m to 0.9 m, the strength of the generated vortex decreased. The visualization through CFD simulation illustrates that a flow circulation exists at many regions in the engine body, which reduce the system performance. As the technique is new, there is a lot of room for further investigation and improvement of the design parameters of the proposed engine.

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Convective vortices are common features of atmosphere that absorb lowerentropy-energy at higher temperatures than they reject higher-entropy-energy to space. Via the thermodynamic efficiency, it has been predicted that the intensity of convective vortices depends on the depth of the convective layer. The atmospheric vortex engine is proposed as a device for producing mechanical energy by means of artificially generated vortex. The operation of the engine is based on the facts that the atmosphere is heated from the bottom and cooled from the top. By generation of the artificial vortex, it is aimed to eliminate the physical solar updraft tower and reduce the capital of the solar chimney power plants. The paper presents the fundamentals of the atmospheric vortex engine, and reviews the state of the art in topic. Furthermore, the paper discusses an idea on utilizing the solar energy as heat source to operate the system. In conclusion, the system is feasible and promising for electrical power generation.