Computing Flow in a Solar Chimney Plant Subject to Atmospheric Winds

The paper presents a computational model for predicting the effect of atmospheric winds on performance of solar chimneys. It comprises governing partial differential equations expressing conservation of mass, energy and balance of momentum in addition to a two equation model of turbulence to compute the detailed flow pattern in the neighborhood of the solar chimney plant. The model is applied to compute the flow field in a small exemplary Solar chimney plant, subject to wind speeds ranging from weak to strong. The predicted results are analyzed and reveal that wind effects are definitely not negligible, although this is generally assumed in Solar Chimney modeling. The analysis reveals a total degradation of performance with strong winds, and considerable degradation even with weak winds unless the collector inlet height is relatively low.Copyright © 2004 by ASME