Analysis of Effect of Geometric Parameters on Performance of Solar Chimney Plants

The paper presents a computational model for predicting the flow details within solar chimney plants. It comprises governing partial differential equations expressing conservation of mass, energy and momentum in addition to a two equation model of turbulence. Boundary-fitted-coordinates are employed to fit the wall shapes accurately. An actuator disc model is adopted to express the effect of an embedded wind turbine. The model is first applied to study the details of the flow within the collector-stack assembly. It is then applied to evaluate the effect of plant size and various geometric parameters on output.© 2005 ASME