Solar Chimney Power Plants, Paper CFD Validation

Description

Solar Chimney Power Plants, Paper Numerical Validation, ANSYS Fluent CFD Simulation Training

In this project, we intend to simulate the solar chimney power plants to compare and validate the results in the article “Effects of geometric parameters on the performance of the solar chimney power plants” using ANSYS Fluent software. We perform this CFD project and investigate it by CFD analysis.

The present model is designed in three dimensions using SOLIDWORKS and then imported into the Design Modeler software. The solar chimney model has a duct height equal to 100m, duct diameter equal to 4m, collector height equal to 2m, and collector radius equal to 100m.

The meshing of this project has been done with ICEM software. The mesh type is Structured.

CFD Methodology

First, To check the mesh independence and eliminate the error of the number of elements, it is necessary to lower the mesh so that our results are no longer affected by the number of grid elements.

For this purpose, we start with the element number 25000, and by doubling the number of elements, we examine the output speed of the pipe as a measure of independence from the mesh.

	Element Number	Power	Error(%)
1	2000000	76051
2	4000000	79413	4.233563774
3	6000000	80600	1.472704715

 

In this project, the airflow enters radially through a pressure inlet boundary with a temperature equal to 308K and passes below a heated wall with a heat flux of 600-800W/m2. The heated air continues to the center of the solar plant, where it can leave the domain through a chimney.

The air density is set to follow the Boussinesq law, in which the air density changes based on the temperature. Moreover, the standard k-epsilon model is used to solve turbulent fluid equations.

Chimney Conclusion

At the end of the solution process, two- and three-dimensional contours related to pressure, velocity, and temperature are obtained. For instance, by viewing the temperature contour, it is clear that the entering airflow has gained temperature by moving adjacent to the heat walls.

Also, by comparing the simulation results with the results in the article, which have an error of less than 5%, it can be concluded that the article has validated the simulation.

Error%	Power- paper	Power-simulation	Flux
1.275	80000	81020	800 w/m^2
-2.5	54500	53100	600 w/m^2