Numerical investigation of a small scale sloped solar chimney power plant

Abstract

The solar chimney power plant has been admitted as one of the feasible methods for utilizing solar energy. However, the reason why the height of the chimney is limited for conventional solar chimney power plants, in terms of construction and harnessing the solar energy in mountainous and impassable areas, is offered the sloped solar chimney power plant as one of the novel techniques. In this paper, we analyzed velocity and temperature distributions of a prototype of a sloped solar chimney power plant by using a three-dimensional simulation. Furthermore, the simulation was validated by experimental data from the literature. Simulation results indicate that steady state flow was an applicable assumption, for solar radiations above 600 W/m2 from morning to noon in a day. Further, the maximum air velocity in a sloped solar chimney power plant where is the entrance of the chimney was reported 2.73 m/s for solar radiation of 800 W/m2. Last but not least, geometrically, the studies showed by reduction of the height of the chimney by 25% (from 9 to 2.25 m), the maximum air velocity was decreased considerably from 2.73 to 2.07 m/s, and average air temperature at the chimney entrance was went up moderately nearly 1%.