Aerodynamic analysis of flow through solar chimneys using different physical scales

Abstract

Renewable energy resources are available on a large scale around the world in abundant quantities The growing energy demand of the globe mainly depends on fossil fuels oil gas and coal and nuclear energy The use of these non renewable energy resources contributes to environmental degradations such as acid rain greenhouse gas emission global warming and the depletion of natural resources Solar energy which is inexhaustible and non polluting nature has been considered as the best among renewable energy resources The majority of devices that have been built to harness the solar energy from the sun are very expensive and difficult to maintain A Solar Chimney Power Plant SCPP generates electricity from solar energy Also it is a very simple and reliable device to build on a small and large scale In the present study an attempt is made to find the optimized shape for an SCPP using Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD to study and improve the flow characteristics inside the SCPP Solar collector chimney and wind newlineturbine s are three essential elements of an SCPP The numerical study shows that when compared to the cylindrical solar chimney the divergent solar chimney is best in converting the available solar energy into kinetic energy In the present study chimneys with a diverging section are proposed to the SCPP system for power generation Series of CFD studies are conducted on different chimney configurations with the flat collector Semi Divergent Chimney achieved an average velocity of 28 m s at the chimney base whose available power is almost twice that of the Spanish prototype Modifications are carried out by varying the collector roof inclination angle without altering the chimney shape newline newline