Induced flow for ventilation and cooling by a solar chimney

Ahmed Abdulnabi Imran, Jalal M. Jalil and Sabah T. Ahmed

Renewable Energy, 2015, vol. 78, issue C, 236-244

Abstract: An experimental and numerical model of a solar chimney was proposed in order to predict its performance under varying geometrical features in Iraqi environmental conditions. Steady, two dimensional, turbulent flow was developed by natural convection inside an inclined solar chimney. This flow was investigated numerically at inclination angles 15° to 60°, solar heat flux 150–750 W/m2 and chimney thickness (50, 100 and 150) mm. The experimental study was conducted using a single solar chimney installed on the roof of a single room with a volume of 12 m3. The chimney was 2 m long; 2 m wide has three gap thicknesses namely: 50, 100 and 150 mm. The performance of the solar chimney was evaluated by measuring the temperature of its glass cover, the absorbing wall and the temperature and velocity of induced air. The results of numerical model showed that; the optimum chimney inclination angle was 60° to obtain the maximum rate of ventilation. At this inclination angle, the rate of ventilation was about 20% higher than 45°. Highest rate of ventilation induced with the help of solar energy was found to be 30 air changes per hour in a room of 12 m3 volumes, at a solar radiation of 750 W/m2, inclined surface angle of 60°, aspect ratio of 13.3 and chimney length of 2 m. The maximum air velocity was 0.8 m/s for a radiation intensity of 750 W/m2 at an air gap of 50 mm thickness. No reverse air flow circulation was observed even at the largest gap of 150 mm. The induced air stream by solar chimney can be used for ventilation and cooling in a natural way (passive), without any mechanical assistance.

Keywords: Solar chimney; Computational fluid dynamics; Natural ventilation; Flow rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148115000269
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:78:y:2015:i:c:p:236-244

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2015.01.019

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 ().