Abstract
The solar chimney power plant system (abbreviated as SCPPS) is a clean and pollution-free facility for generating electric power. To improve the generating efficiency, a bank of baffles can be arranged under the collector in SCPPS. ANSYS Fluent 18.2 was used to numerically simulate 3D models of SCPPS with or without baffles, and an experimental apparatus was built for verification. There are seven different types of model discussed here: the SCPPS without baffles (prototype), and other six types of models with different baffles (a-type, b-type, c-type, d-type, e-type, and f-type). The pressure fields, temperature fields, velocity fields, and power outputs of different models under the different baffles are discussed. It is shown that the addition of baffles in the system can increase the temperature field, pressure field, velocity field, and power output to varying degrees, but b-type baffles better improve the temperature and velocity uniformity of the system, and intensify the output power. For b-type, the simulation of the systems with five different baffle numbers (3, 4, 6, 8, and 12, respectively) was carried out, and it was concluded that the system with 12 baffles is the best in improving the system performance. It can be seen that the more the number of baffles, the better the performance of SCPPS. The experiments are also verified the simulation.
Highlights
SCPPS is a simple, clean, and pollution-free facility, by which the solar energy can be converted to electricity
Under the condition of weak solar radiation, 3 or 6 b-type baffles can increase the concentrated distribution of the velocities at the bottom of the chimney, which means increasing the velocities
It is concluded that the addition of the six different baffles in SCPPS can increase the velocity, temperature, pressure field to varying degrees, but the b-type baffles can improve the temperatures and velocity uniformity of the system, and the output power is promoted significantly
Summary
SCPPS is a simple, clean, and pollution-free facility, by which the solar energy can be converted to electricity. The density of the heated air decreases and flows upward along the chimney to force the rotation of the shaft of the turbine at the bottom of the chimney, and the turbine drives the generating set to generate electrical power. With the low power generation efficiency and large occupied area of the system, it is difficult for large-scale development. For these problems, many scholars have researched optimization studies on its structure. In 2002, Jiakuan Yang et al [4,5,6,7] established a small SUPPS experimental device in Wuhan, China, and the output power was 0.003 W. In 2018, Ajay Bejalwar [8] built an experimental device covering 250 square feet area, and measured 10–25 W generated power without other energy sources. With the continuous development of simulation technology, it has gradually become a trend to use simulations or simulations combined with experiments to optimize the system
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