Abstract
In a world with ever-dwindling resources, attention is now being directed towards renewable energy systems. In this paper, a hybrid solar chimney and water desalination plant is simulated and optimized using CFD; giving special attention to the desalination. The objective of this study is to find the optimum geometric parameters and analyze their impact on electricity generation and freshwater production. Transient 2D numerical simulations in ANSYS Fluent, incorporating the discrete ordinates (DO) and volume of fluid (VOF), were performed for six different configurations of a full-scale system. The geometries have different inclination angles for the desalination roof (8° or 10°), the solar collector (8°, 10°, or 12°), and the chimney (0° or 1°). The behavior of the system was investigated using the velocity, temperature, and water desalination charts, which were obtained for a 12-h period. The results showed that a divergent chimney could increase the average air velocity from 17% to 23%, and increase the electricity generation from 64% to 95%. Furthermore, the models with a divergent solar collector could produce almost twice as much freshwater as the models with parallel collectors. The model with the best performance had a divergent chimney with an angle of 1 °, a desalination roof with an angle of 8 °, and a solar collector with an angle of 12 °.
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