Numerical and experimental investigation of 1:33 scale solar chimney power plant

Abstract

Papers presented to the 11th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 20-23 July 2015.

A 1:33 scale instrumented model of the Manzanares Solar Chimney Power Plant with a tower height of approximately 6m was constructed and measurements were obtained during the summer of 2014 without a turbine installed. In parallel, a computational fluid dynamics analysis was carried out. Quasisteady Fluent simulations were performed to predict the temperature transients for the model plant over the duration of one day. The collector and ground models were found to have a strong impact on the predicted plant behavior. Unsteady simulations using an in-house developed research code and steady-state Reynolds-stress model Fluent calculations indicate the presence of a Rayleigh-Bénard-Poiseuille instability in the flow under the collector. For both CFD approaches, strong streamwise vortices appear which considerably increase the wall-normal heat transfer. Finally, an actuator disk model was employed for simulating the pressure drop associated with a turbine at the tower inlet. The shaft-power exhibits a maximum with respect to the turbine pressure drop. Compared to the zeroload simulations the streamwise vortices appear earlier.