Summary
Computational fluid dynamics is applied to a buoyancy-driven solar tower at a sub-Saharan African site after sunset, when heat released by the soil sustains the draft. Reliable predictions required treating the soil store as porous, giving the collector both radiation and convection losses, and using a discrete-ordinates scheme. Grouping four or five lower towers cut peak speeds yet raised overall throughput; passive wells in the soil were also assessed.
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