CFD analysis for solar chimney power plants

Fasel, Hermann F.; Meng, Fanwei; Shams, Ehsan; Groß, Andreas

doi:10.1016/j.solener.2013.08.029

Cited by 111 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…In terms of using this modelling approach for solar power plants, Fasel et al. [8] applied CFD for the thermal and fluid flow modeling of a solar chimney power plant. For CSP plants this approach has been used successfully to investigate thermal losses and to analyze the thermal efficiency of different receivers for Linear Fresnel, Parabolic Through and Solar Tower types (Facão and Oliviera [9], Lobón et al [10] and Garbrecht et al [11]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finite-volume ray tracing using Computational Fluid Dynamics in linear focus CSP applications

et al. 2016

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The modelling of solar irradiation in concentrated solar power (CSP) applications is traditionally done with ray-tracing methods, e.g. the Monte Carlo method. For the evaluation of CSP receivers, the results from ray-tracing codes are typically used to provide boundary conditions to Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes for the solution of conjugate heat transfer in the receivers. There are both advantages and disadvantages to using separate software for the irradiation and heat transfer modelling. For traditional ray-tracing methods, advantages are the cost-effectiveness of the Monte Carlo method in modelling reflections from specular surfaces; the ability to statistically assign a sun shape to the rays; the statistical treatment of reflectivity and optical errors (e.g. surface slope errors), to name a few. When considering a complex mirror field and a complex receiver with secondary reflective surfaces, especially with selective coatings to enhance absorption and limit re-radiation losses, standard ray tracers may be limited in specifying emissivity and absorptivity, which are both specular and temperature dependent, and are hence not suitable as radiation analysis tool. This type of scenario can be modelled accurately using CFD, through the finite volume (FV) treatment of the radiative transfer equation (RTE) and a banded spectrum approach at an increased computational cost. This paper evaluates the use of CFD in the form of the commercial CFD code ANSYS Fluent v15 and v16 to model the reflection, transmission and absorption of solar irradiation from diffuse and specular surfaces found in linear CSP applications. 2-D CFD solutions were considered, i.e. line concentration. To illustrate and validate the method, two sources were used. The first source was test cases from literature with published solutions and the second a combined modelling approach where solutions were obtained using both FV and ray tracing (with SolTrace). For all the test cases, good agreement was found when suitable modelling settings were used to limit both ray-effect and false scattering errors.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finite-volume ray tracing using Computational Fluid Dynamics in linear focus CSP applications

et al. 2016

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“…In the work of [10] solar chimney power plants are investigated numerically showing detailed time-dependent high-resolution simulations of the flow in the collector and chimney of the model provide detailed insight into the fluid dynamics and heat transfer mechanisms. In the work of [11], the use of solar chimneys in cogeneration applications in coal gasification is examined.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As discussed earlier in the paper, using experimental data from Agrilab Technologies [9], a heat input of 0.516 kW/ton of waste was obtained due to composting. Additionally, compost batch surface temperature data acquired by Smith and Aber [10] show an average (yet oscillatory) surface temperature of compost batches of around 120 °F (49 C). In both considerations, the compost piles are assumed to be well maintained in order to supply energy consistently at the specified amounts.…”

Section: Hybrid Tower Thermal Fluids Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal-Fluids Analysis of a Hybrid Solar/Compost Waste Heat Updraft Tower

Anderson¹,

Shafahi²,

McNamara³

2015

JOCET

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Abstract-This paper presents the results for a feasibility study of a solar chimney which uses low-grade waste heat from compost in conjunction with solar energy transmitted via a transparent roof top. The feasibility study shows that the solar chimney's turbine power increases with pressure ratio, the height of the chimney as well as the differential temperature in the chamber. This paper also outlines the thermodynamic modeling related to using waste heat from composting to increase the air temperature in the inlet chamber of a solar chimney. It is found that from this analysis that the average temperature in the chamber increases as a function of the chimney inlet chamber axial length. The combined raw in input total heat gain for this hybrid solar composting chimney is found to be 6.24 MW of which 66% (4.12 MW) is comprised of solar, and 34% (2.12 MW) is comprised of composting energy Index Terms-Composting, waste heat recovery, solar updraft tower .

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“…12 Xu et al 13 carried out RANS calculations for investigating the effect of the solar radiation and pressure drop across the turbine on the energy losses and power output for the Manzanares solar chimney plant. Shams et al 3 employed RANS for investigating the effect of the geometric scale and the ratio of tower height to chimney diameter on the total power.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Computational Fluid Dynamics Investigation of Solar Chimney Power Plant

Meng

Groß

Fasel³

2013

43rd Fluid Dynamics Conference

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A direct numerical simulation of the three-dimensional unsteady flow in a 1:33 scale model of the the Manzanares solar chimney power plant in zero load condition (negligible pressure drop across turbine) was carried out. Instantaneous flow visualizations for the collector show transverse rolls near the collector inlet and longitudinal rolls about halfway into the collector. Based on earlier linear stability theory investigations for plane twodimensional channel flow, the observed structures are attributed to a Rayleigh-Bénard-Poisuille instability. The present simulations also indicate separation from the bottom and top wall of the chimney inlet and downstream of the turbine mount. The buoyancy-driven flow in the chimney is fully turbulent.

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CFD analysis for solar chimney power plants

Cited by 111 publications

References 26 publications

Finite-volume ray tracing using Computational Fluid Dynamics in linear focus CSP applications

Finite-volume ray tracing using Computational Fluid Dynamics in linear focus CSP applications

Thermal-Fluids Analysis of a Hybrid Solar/Compost Waste Heat Updraft Tower

Computational Fluid Dynamics Investigation of Solar Chimney Power Plant

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