[Bldg-sim] help in PhD research - solar chimney simulation

[James Lo]

Leticia,

Due to the specific geometry and convection based airflow that might 
occur in the chimney, I'd suggest you to run a CFD (computational 
fluid dynamics) analysis for this. You can assign different heat 
gains from your solar surfaces (base on weather data I assume), then 
figure out the flow rate and flow regime inside the chimney. I think 
this is more a airflow/heat transfer problem than an energy simulation problem.

The good thing about using CFD in this case is that you can then do a 
parametric analysis for many different variables you might consider 
to look into. As for what CFD program to use, it will depend on what 
your university have available. I would think Fluent Airpak will do 
nicely in your case.

hope this helps

- James Lo

At 01:03 PM 12/9/2009, Leticia Neves wrote:
>Hi,
>
>My PhD research is about the use of a tilted solar chimney to 
>enhance natural ventilation by stack effect, in Brazil.
>I have built a test cell (picture attached) and I want to do 
>computer simulations of the solar chimney I proposed, in order to do 
>some parametric analysis and to verify the performance in several 
>locations through the country.
>I tried to use EnergyPlus but it wasn't very successfull.
>I need a suggestion of sotware that is suitable for what I need. 
>Does anyone have an indication?
>In case of using TRNSYS, it is possible to do this kind of 
>simulation with the demo version, or do I have to have the TRNFlow 
>module? (not available at demo version)
>
>Thanks.
>Leticia
>
>
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L. James Lo, Doctoral Candidate
Center for Energy & Environmental Resources
University of Texas at Austin
10100 Burnet Rd. Bldg. 133 Rm 1.302C
Austin, TX 78758
Phone: (512) 699-9480
ljameslo at gmail.com