Thermofluid effects of solar chimney geometry on performance parameters

Abstract

The solar chimney system (SCS) is a novel application that has recently become the focus of researchers in this field. The current study included a numerical simulation of changing all the variables defining the system's shape construction, in addition to the influence of curvatures on performance assessment. The approach confirms the SCS output power, velocity, and temperature based on studying more than 40 cases in various assemblages. These sets are grouped into diverse forms by changing variable parameters, including collector angle, chimney angle, collector height, turbine location, fillet radius, and shape. The findings indicated that increasing the chimney angle up to 3° increases both velocity and efficiency, while the increment in maximum velocity reaches 200% which radically improves the system power output. The change of the chimney inlet height influences the average velocity substantially from 2.04 to 2.41. The effect of collector angle efficiently improves the SCS performance for the positive angles, where the maximum increment in average velocity equals 6.25%. The greater the collector height up to 70% of turbine radius, the increase in the mass flow. The concaved shape of chimney reduces flow separation and the energy loss resulting from eddies inside it.