Experimental and numerical investigation on an innovative solar chimney

• Intensifiers were applied to increase heat flux.
• Numerical and experimental data were compered.
• We investigated the rotational pattern of the air inside the SC.
• This chimney is equipped with a container, placed exactly beneath the collector.

A novel small scale model of solar chimney was investigated experimentally and numerically. Air flow, heat transfer and flow characteristics were numerically calculated and compared with the experimental results in this paper. Two intensifiers were used to intensify the heat flux radiated by the sun all around the solar chimney in the experimental case. An air tank was located downside the system to increase the absorption of the solar radiation reflected by the intensifiers. RNG k–ɛ model was chosen to simulate the turbulence and the well-known SIMPLE algorithm was used to solve the coupled velocity and pressure equations. Results show that utilization of intensifiers caused an increase in velocity magnitude in the chimney and consequently more power was generated. The maximum velocity of 5.12 m/s was reached which is remarkable, considering the small size of the SC structure.