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Solar chimneys do draw but mainly they just suck.

Author(s) : ALLISON C. B., CHATERGON E.

Type of article: Article

Summary

Solar chimneys are something of an enigma. They are not very common, and very little is known about their actual performance. They have been installed in various commercial or public buildings, and as long as they are not adding to the space cooling load, are assumed to work satisfactorily. Very few studies have been done to rationalise their performance. Their use in a domestic application is quite scarce. Therefore, when it was proposed to use a solar chimney in a private residence in Perth, it was a fortuitous opportunity to estimate the actual, value – added ventilation contribution of the solar component. A series of virtual experiments using a CFD analysis was designed to measure the actual solar chimney ventilation contribution. These experiments would be extremely impractical to perform in a real sense but the use of a capable CFD code proved to be an extremely useful design tool. The flip-side of this circumstance is that the CFD simulations could not be validated since they indicated that the solar chimney should not be constructed in the first place. At best, the expense of constructing a chimney that would have very little benefit was avoided.

Details

  • Original title: Solar chimneys do draw but mainly they just suck.
  • Record ID : 30010193
  • Languages: English
  • Source: EcoLibrium - vol. 12 - n. 8
  • Publication date: 2013/09

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