Abstract
The performance of solar chimney power plant (SCPP) is analyzed numerically using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) commercial ANSYS Fluent. Two dimensional axisymmetric model of the only one prototype in Manzanares updraft tower is considered. Solar radiation generates small pressure difference inside the chimney during the day-time. However, during the night- time due to unavailability of solar radiation, the power generation does not remain continue. To overcome this problem one can use thermal storage material to store the energy available during the day-time and release during the night-time. A standard K-ε turbulence model and Boussinesq approximation for buoyancy driven flow is considered. The numerical simulation results show that: (1) Solar chimney power plant with thermal storage as water will reduce the variation of power output due to fluctuation of solar radiation; (2) As solar radiation intensity increases, the velocity of the system also increases significantly; (3) The average surface temperature of the energy storage layer increases significantly with gravel as thermal storage.
Abstract by the authors, reproduced under the CC BY-NC 4.0 licence. Original publication via the link below.