Experimental study of different thermal storage system effects on the performance of a small prototype solar chimney power plant

Abstract

The present work is dedicated to an experimental study of a small SCPP prototype with a thermal storage system. The experimental prototype was designed, built, and set up in the laboratory of YEKARUM of Süleyman Demirel University, SDU, in Isparta, Turkey. It consists of a chimney tower of 4.2 m in height and 0.24 m in diameter and an air collector of 5.93 m in diameter with 1 m in outlet collector height. Different thermal storage systems (TES) were tested to demonstrate their effects on the performance of the prototype of the SCPP. Isparta site is suitable for installing SCPP according to its sunny property where the solar irradiation reaches 1123 W/m2. The collector's efficiency depends strongly on the thermal storage system. It is demonstrated that adding the diffuser to the experimental device increases the SCPP performance by reducing turbulence in the collector. Moreover, the crushed gravel basement is presented as the best thermal storage system, with a collector efficiency reaching 89.73%. Experimental and theoretical data have shown a good agreement. Good consistency was found between the experimental results of this study and those from the literature.