Transient thermal analysis of a solar chimney for buildings with three different types of absorbing materials: Copper plate/PCM/concrete wall

J. Xamán, R. Vargas-López, M. Gijón-Rivera, I. Zavala-Guillén, M.J. Jiménez and J. Arce

Renewable Energy, 2019, vol. 136, issue C, 139-158

Abstract: A transient numerical simulation of a solar chimney system (SC), considering convective and radiative gains/losses to the exterior environment, in the warmest day of Madrid, Spain is presented. We performed a conjugate heat transfer analysis for SC with three types of absorbing materials: (1) SC with a lightweight plate (copper) – reference case, (2) SC with a phase change material (PCM 46-50) and (3) SC with a heavyweight wall (concrete). Numerical simulations for three orientations east (7:00–12 h), south (8:00–18 h), and west (12:30 to 18 h) were conducted to analyze the overall thermal performance of the SC throughout the day. The numerical in-house code was tested by solving two reference solutions reported in the literature, obtaining good agreement. Based on the numerical heat transfer analysis, the following is concluded: The SC with a copper plate shows the higher mass flow rates of 0.016, 0.019 and 0.016 kg/s for orientations east, west, and south, respectively. While the mass flow rate removed by the PCM configuration is higher than for the concrete wall configuration but is lower than for the copper plate (0.014, 0.017 and 0.0153 kg/s for orientations east, west, and south, respectively). The average thermal efficiencies of the SC with a copper plate are 34, 27 and 34% and with a PCM are 28, 19.8, and 27% for orientations east, west, and south, respectively. The SC with a concrete wall shows the lowest thermal efficiency values. Finally, it was observed that for orientations east and south, the PCM layer does not change its phase and it remains in the mushy zone. It reaches its melting point on approximately 30–45 min for the three orientations. Conversely, the PCM changed its phase to a liquid state in 135 min for orientation west.

Keywords: Solar chimney; Phase change material; Transient numerical simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014811831560X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:136:y:2019:i:c:p:139-158

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2018.12.106

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().