Performance analysis of a laboratory-scale tilted solar chimney system exposed to ambient crosswind

Abstract

The tilted solar chimney (TSC) system has been introduced as one of the novel solar thermal approaches, whose performance in the presence of ambient crosswinds (ACW) is still somewhat unclear. The present research offers an in-depth experimental and numerical investigation of a TSC operating at a range of ambient wind velocities. Besides ACW investigations, numerical simulations examine the influence of solar radiation and chimney tilt angle (measured from the vertical line) on the fluid flow and thermal performance of the system. Results suggest that the ACW has an adverse effect on power performance at relatively low crosswind speeds. It is found that tilted solar chimney in windy conditions at a range of tilt angles between 10o - 20o has better flow performance compared with the fixed chimney arrangement. Dimensional analysis is carried out to establish the dimensionless parameters for predicting the system power output in a large-scale prototype with 200m chimney height. The results indicated that at 15o chimney tilt angle, the power output increases between 5% to 20% depending on the ACW velocities compared to the vertical chimney at the same crosswind speeds. The present research would be valuable for evaluating the power capacity of similar full-scale facilities.