The impact of the combined chimney outlet size and extended solar wall-roof chimney on airflow patterns using numerical simulation

摘要

This paper investigates airflow patterns and behavior of combined roof and extended solar wall-roof chimney incorporated into a typical room with an inlet and outlet. Numerical simulations using the Fluid Dynamics software Package, FIDAP, are exploited to describe and analyze the airflow patterns inside the room, and in the extended solar wall-roof chimneys. FIDAP simulation analyses and results of the airflow streamline, velocity vectors, and temperature distributions are presented. Maximum velocity vector, temperatures, and smooth streamlines were found for better performance at separation of 0.25m. At 0.25m separation, in both wall and roof solar chimneys, the maximum chimney outlet flow rate and smooth streamline were found when the wall chimney is 2.00m high, which corresponds to a wall chimney inlet of 1.60m. Results show that the maximum relative speed in the combined chimneys is higher than the solar roof chimney alone. These findings suggest that the exploitation of an extended solar roof-wall chimney could enhance nighttime natural ventilation and the cooling of buildings. The system is limited to cool low-rise buildings in hot-arid regions such as Al-Ain City, UAE, where energy use is enormous.