The impact of placing obstacles on the distribution of the airflow inside a solar chimney

Abstract

Solar energy sources are alternative solutions to creating energy by the use of solar radiation. The solar chimney power plants (SCPPs) are non-concentrated thermal systems that use the solar radiation to produce green energy. The main components of an SCPP are a collector, an absorber, a chimney, and a turbine that is coupled with a generator. The feasibility study of these thermal devices is required. In this paper, a study of a solar chimney power plant is reported. In fact, a numerical investigation of the obstacle effect on the distributions of the airflow in a solar chimney is presented using the commercial CFD code Ansys Fluent. The comparison between numerical and experimental findings has shown good agreement for the considered instance. Accordingly, the presented numerical model is capable of estimating the airflow characteristics inside the solar device. Results showed that the placement of obstacles at the collector output favors the performance of an existing solar chimney. The generated power could be enhanced by 11.5% using one obstacle and 14.75% using two obstacles.

Effect of slope tower angle and thermal storage media on flexibility solar chimney power plant performance

“…Ayadi et al 13 investigated the obstacle effect on the distributions of the airflow in a solar chimney. Their results show that obstacles located at the collector output improve the performance of solar chimney by enhancing the generated power by 11.5% when using one obstacle and 14.75% when using two obstacles.…”