A Simulation of the Thermal Performance of a Small Solar Chimney Already Installed in a Building

In this paper we present the theoretical and experimental study of a small solar chimney. The dimensions of the solar Chimney channel are 1.95 m high, 1.70 m width and 0.24 m depth. The channel of the solar chimney has in its backside a metallic plate as a solar heat absorber, and it is attached to a concrete wall, which acts as a storage and thermal isolation. On the front part of the chimney there is a glass plate used to decrease the heat losses to the exterior. Because the metallic plate is heated, air circulates from the lower side to the top side of the chimney channel. For the theoretical study, the steady state energy balance equations were solved for each element of the solar chimney following the methodology proposed by Ong in 2003 [8]. A numerical code was developed and reduced to cases of literature in order to validate it (Ong and Chow in 2003 [12]). The results showed the temperature distributions of the glass, the air inside the channel and the metallic plate. Also, the air mass flow rate was determined. For an hourly Irradiance of 400 W/m², the efficiency of the solar chimney decreased from 38 to 15% as the height of the chimney increased from 0.25 to 1.95 m.