Airflow change and exergy analysis due to the installation of various types of partitions in the collector of a solar chimney power plant

Abstract

Interest in renewable energy is rapidly growing due to the increase in energy demand, environmental pollution, and depletion of fossil fuels worldwide. One of these sources is solar chimney power plant, which utilizes solar energy to generate electrical energy at a relatively low operating cost. Solar chimneys also do not require cooling, indicating that water resources are not wasted, and they are expected to be widely used in developing countries with abundant solar radiation. This study involved installing a solar chimney with a height of 3 m and a diameter of 3 m for the collector. The experimental results were verified by performing numerical work using ANSYS Fluent, under the scenario that no partition was present in the collector. The exergy efficiencies with I- and C-type partitions were compared with the case without partition. The result showed that the exergy efficiencies were 7.05 % and 7.12 % for the I- and C-type partitions, respectively, and they were higher than the previous 6.44 % for no partition. This study confirmed that the power generation exergy efficiency can be increased by installing partitions in existing solar chimney power plants.