A numerical simulation of a wall-attached solar chimney with asymmetric heating

Abstract

Solar chimney has been widely employed for natural cooling or heating of buildings. Of its forms, wall-attached solar chimney is common. Most of previous studies examined solar chimneys with the heat source on one side of the air channel of a solar chimney. In practical applications, depending on the materials, the absorption of solar radiation can be on both sides of the air channel. Therefore, this study examines a wall-attached solar chimney with the heat source distributed on both sides of the air channel. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was utilized to simulate the flow dynamics and heat transfer of the problem. Performance of the solar chimney was described in terms of the heat transfer coefficient, or Nusselt number, the induced flow rate, and the temperature rise through the chimney. The results shows that the examined parameters can be improved, reduced, or unchanged depending on the gap of the air channel and the heat distribution ratio. The findings may be useful for designing wall-attached solar chimney as they show the conditions for maximizing the flow rate or the temperature rise.