The effect of climatic conditions on the performance of a new configuration of solar chimney

Abstract

In this study, a new configuration of the solar chimney is introduced and its performance is compared with the conventional one. Using numerical simulation, the effect of different climatic conditions (cold and dry, hot and arid, hot and humid) on the performance of the new solar chimney is studied using the weather information of three cities of Iran including Tabriz (cold and dry), Yazd (hot and arid), and Bandar Abbas (hot and humid). It is found that the new solar chimney has 13-20% better performance than the conventional one, depending on climatic conditions. Also, the results showed that the performance of the new configuration is better in cold and dry climate zone than that in the other zones. Additionally, in this study, a new correlation for the estimation of the mass flow rate of solar chimney is introduced using four non-dimensional parameters.