IJECA-ISSN: 2543-3717. June 2021 Page 34 

 

 

International Journal of Energetica (IJECA) 

https://www.ijeca.info 

ISSN: 2543-3717 Volume 6. Issue 1. 2021 Page 34-38 

 

Parametric Study of the Effective parameters on the Performance of 

Solar Chimney Power Plant 

Hadda Nouar
1*

, Abdelghani Azizi
2
, Younes Chiba

3
, Toufik Tahri

1
 

 
1
 Electro Technology and renewable energies Department, University of Hassiba Ben Bouali, Chlef, ALGERIA 

2
 Department of Renewable Energies, Ouargla, University of Kasdi Merbah Ouargla, ALGERIA 

3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of yahia Fares, Medea, ALGERIA 

 

 
Email *: h.nouar@univ-chlef.dz 

 

Abs tract –The solar chimney power plant (SCPP) is an effective option for electrical energy 

production from solar energy. In this paper, a numerical model to predict the SCPP performance 

is developed. The effects o f collector angle and solar radiation are investigated on the parameters 

of air as the velocity and temperature. The study shows that when the collector angle is 20°, the 

velocity maximum is 1.8 m/s at the chimney base and the maximum temperature is 332.1k . in  

addition, increased solar radiation produces an increase in temperature (from 400 w/m² to 900 

w/m²) and air velocity (from 22.25 m/s to 2.75 m/s) in the solar energy tower 

 

Keywords: Velocity, Solar chimney power plant, energy tower, solar energy, electrical energy. 

Received: 25/04/2021 – Accepted: 25/06/2021 

 

I.  Introduction 

Solar ch imney power p lant is a renewable  energy 

center with the potential to generate important quantities 

of electrica l energy [1], wh ich are a therma l system that 

creates  electrical energy using both the effect of 

buoyancy of hot air and effect of chimney  [2]. A  solar 

chimney power plant is made up of three ma in 

ele ments: the solar collector, the solar tower and the 

turbine. The collector angle is one of principa l 

parameters in the enhancement of electricity production 

[3]. The solar ch imney power p lant is used in hot areas 

with high intensity of solar radiat ion. Its operating 

principle  is based on the fact that hot air, be ing lighter 

than cold air, rises. The hot air is produced by the 

greenhouse effect in the collector wh ich can spread 

horizontally for several tens of meters on the surface of 

the ground. The tower (chimney) converts the heat flow 

captured by the collector into kinetic energy (convection 

current) and potential energy (pressure drop in the 

turbine), Thus the diffe rence in a ir density caused by the 

temperature rise in the collector acts as a driving fo rce. 

The movement of air a llows turbines at the base of the 

chimney to generate electricity through generators 

coupled to them [4-5]. 

3D nume rical model was developed to analyze the 

flow para meters such as temperature, veloc ity of solar 

updraft tour (SUT ) and pressure also the influence of 

geometrica l para meters such as chimney height and the 

roof collector. It was observed that when the collector 

roof angle increased, air ve locity a lso increased whereas 

the air te mperature decreased slightly [6]. In another 

work, 3D nu me rica l model developed to analyze  the 

influence of solar flu x, the divergence angle of the 

chimney and turbine effic iency on the performance of 

SUT p lant [7]. The influences of roughness shape of 

collector were investigated on the performance  of 

SCPP. In their study, curved, the roughness shape of 

triangular and square grooves  were studied and 

compared with the smooth case. In  the authors erected a 

SCPP inside the University campus, with 1m collector 

radius, 0.2 m chimney dia meter while the height was 

varied fro m 2 m to 4 m. The results revealed that the 

chimney height of 4 m and the collector inlet height of 

0.04 m produced the optimal configuration [8]. 

Based on the buoyancy phenomenon, the power 

production from the gas of the power plant's chimney  

using the combination of the power p lant's hot output 

with ambient air was  investigated and modeled at 

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Hadda Nouar  et al 

IJECA-ISSN: 2543-3717. 

 

 
Page 35 

 
 

 

temperatures and different discharge rates of the power 

plant's  hot output on a pilot scale [9]. The authors 

proposed in a new chimney design of hyperbolic shape 

[10]. The design of chimney is enhanced by exa mining  

the effect of the divergence radius of the chimney on the 

performance of SCPP using a 2D CFD mode l. In  another 

work [11], a novel collector design with double-pass 

counter flow mode was proposed to enhance further the  

SCPP effic iency and reduce the large p lant area. The 

authors  compared  three collector models  including 

double-pass  collector with para lle l flow, double-pass 

collector with counter flo w and conventional collector by 

using CFD model. 

Small-scale prototype of SCPP was  designed and 

built at  the Un iversity of Ouargla , A lgeria  [12]. In the  

study of a small-scale prototype of SCPP was designed 

and built at the University of Ouargla, Algeria. It was  

found that the velocities of air at the chimney base are in 

a good accord with those estimated fro m the CFD 

method. The ma ximu m a ir veloc ity in  the chimney 

achieved was 1.6 m/s and the predicted generated power 

reached 104 kW. A novel concept consists of a horizontal 

solar chimney power plant with an adapted collector 

entrance, named sloped collector entrance  SCESCPP. 

The results  indicate that the new collector entrance 

design affects  significantly the system performance [13]. 

In this paper, a nu merical model was presented to 

simu late the solar chimney  for the Iranian  plant and the  

SCPP performance is studied. The effect of collector 

angle and heat flu x on the a ir te mperature and velocity o f 

air was investigated. 

 

II.  Methodology 

 
In the solar ch imney, the incident solar radiation will  

heat the air flowing inside the collector of the solar 

chimney by convection, causing the air  te mperature to 

rise by the phenomenon of the greenhouse effect under 

the transparent roof wh ich acts main ly on the flow of heat 

absorbed not to leave the structure of the collector. And 

due to the temperature  differences  between the 

temperature at the base of the solar chimney and the 

temperature of the atmosphere, air is continuously drawn  

in through the periphery of the open collector in the 

chimney due to the buoyancy effect. A turbine is placed at  

the base of the chimney through which the hot air passes 

to convert part of the useful energy of the c ircu lating a ir  

into electricity [14]. 

2D nume rica l solution of solar chimney power plant  

(SCPP) as shown in Figure 1, is developed according to 

the dimension of Iranian prototype (Table 1) [15]. SCPP 

is simulated by COM SOL Mu ltiphysics, Simulations are  

used by solving RANS equations to predict the output of 

SCPP output. 

 
Table 1. Geometric p arameters of the SCPP 

 

p arameter Value[m] 

Collector op ening height 0.15 

Diameter of Chimney  0.25 

Diameter of Collector 10 

chimney  height 12 

 

Figure 1. diagram Schemat ic of solar chimney power plant 

 
II. 1  Mesh creation 

 
Do main  grid  is important phase in the CFD ana lysis. 

In this simulation, a triangular mesh in Figure 2 is created  

using the meshing tool COMSOL, it consist of 11477 

ele ments with more concentrating ele ment density on the 

inlet, outlet and junction regions. 

 

 
Figure 2. T he meshing of t he SCP P  syst em 



Hadda Nouar  et al 

IJECA-ISSN: 2543-3717. 

 

 


k 

Page 36 

 
 

 

II. 2  Governing equation 

 
based on Rayleigh’s  number the air flow type is 

determined and it is evaluated as: 

T able 2. Boundary conditions 

gTH 
3


R   col  
a
 

(1) 

where Hcol , ∆T, g, α and μ are collector height and 

diffe rence of te mperature  in  the system, gravity, thermal  

diffusivity and kinematic viscosity respectively. 

Pr and Gr indicate Prandt number and Grashof number,  

respectively. Rayle igh number is more than 10
9
, so air 

flow in the system is considered as turbulent. 

The problem is  governed by the conservation of 

mo mentu m, energy and mass  equations  is  given as 

follows: 

Continuity Equation: 

 
III.  Results and discussion 

 
III. 1  impact of solar radiation on temperature and 

air velocity 

Figure 3 d isplays impact of angle of collector roof on 

the air velocity. It is found that the variation of collector 

angle fro m15°-30° has  an considerable e ffect on the 

velocity of air, when the velocity air augment (from 1.5 
 

 .()  0 
t 

Momentum equation: 

(2) m/s to 1.8 m/s) with the increasing of collector angle  

(fro m 15° to 20°), after this angle the a ir velocity 

decreases  (1.8 m/s  to 1.5 m/s) by increasing collector 

 
u 

 (u.)  .[PI  (   )(  (u)
T
 )  

2 
(   )(.u)I  

2 
KI] F 

   

angle (from 20° to 30°). 

t 
T
 

 
Energy equation: 

3 
T  

3
 

(3) 

C 
T 

 C u.T  .(KT )  Q  Q   W 
 

(4) 
p  
t 

p vh P 

where F, u, P and  are volume forces , radial velocity, 

pressure and density respectively. 

The dissipation rate and kinetic turbulence energy are 

obtained as: 

k  equation: 

 
k 

 (u.)k  .[(  


T 
)k]  P  

 

(5) 

t 
k
 

s Equation: 
 
 

        
T   

    
  

 
2
 

 
 

(6) 

t 
(u.  ) .[( 

3  
2  

) ] C
 1   

P
k
 


C
 2 

k
  

Figure 3. variat ion of air velocity for different collector angle 
3      k  

wh ere   C


4       

L
T

 

is the energy dissipation and  
Figure 4 illustrates  effect of angle collector roof on 

T  
k 

2 

C     

 is  the turbulent viscosity. temperature of air. It is found that the air temperature 

augment significantly (from 324.7k to 332.1k) with 


k 
 1, C  0.09 , C1  1.44 C 2  1.92 and   1.3 . 

P
k 
indicate to the generation of kinetic turbulent energy 

due by mean gradients  of velocity, is calculated by: 

P   [u : (u  (u)
T 

)  
2 

(.u)
2 
]  

2 
k.u 

(7) 

higher collector angle  (fro m 15° to 20°) and declines 

significantly a fter a  certa in point (fro m 20° to 30°). Fro m 

these results, it can be concluded  that the appropriate 

collector angle is  20°. 
k T 

3 3 

II.3 Boundary condition 

The main boundary conditions for the studied SCPP are 

indicated in Table 2. 

1.8 

 
1.75 

 
1.7 

 
1.65 

 
1.6 

 
1.55 

 
1.5 

15° 20° 

collector angle(°) 

°25 °30 

a
ir

 v
e

lo
c
it

y
(m

/
s

) 


k 

Surface T ype Value 

Inlet  Collector P ressure Inlet Pci = 101325 pa, T 
= Tam = 300𝐾 

Out let  of Chimney P ressure Out let  P  =101325 pa 

Surface of 

Collect or 

Semi-t ransparent 

wall 

Solar irradiat ion; 

h=10.45 W/𝑚2 

Chimney wall Adiabat ic q=0 W/𝑚2 

 



Hadda Nouar  et al 

IJECA-ISSN: 2543-3717. 

 

 
Page 37 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4. Variat ion of t emperature of air for different collector angle 
 

Figure 5 illustrate the distribution of velocity of air 

and temperature for appropriate collector angle  is 20°, on  

the left figure we show that the min imu m values of the 

temperature a re located at the entrance of the collector 

then it increases progressively to ma ximu m value in the  

collector center. 

On the right figure we show that the velocity magnitude 

is very wea k at the entrance of the co llector then 

increases  gradually to outlet of the collector; it then 

reaches  its maximu m value in the chimney base. 

 

 
Figure 5. Velocit y and t emperature contours at collector angle is 20° 

 
III. 2  Effect of solar radiation on temperature air and 

velocity 

 
The roof angle is 20° and the same temperature 

conditions and varies solar radiation such as 400w/ m² to  

900 w/m². 

Figure 6 and 7 show the effect of solar radiation on 

temperature o f a ir and veloc ity. As the solar radiation 

augment at 900 w/m² both the temp erature and the velocity  rise 

reaches a maximu m value of 325 k and 2.7 m/s resp ectively . 

From these results, it is clear that the solar radiat ion has 

significant effect on both air velocity and temperature. 

 
 

Figure 6. Effect  of solar radiation on air velocity 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Figure 7. Effect  of solar radiation on temperature 

 

 
IV .  Conclusion 

 
Nu merical modeling on the performance of SCPP 

using two-dimensional (2D) energy and Navie r-Stokes 

equation was  presented. The airflow is turbulent and 

simu lated with k-epsilon model, using COMSOL 

Multiphysics . 

According to simulat ions, we can conclude the 

following: 

 The angle of the co llector roof has a considerable 

effect on both the velocity distribution and 

temperature in the SCPP when collector angle is  

20°, while the  ma ximu m veloc ity is 1.81 m/s and 

the maximu m temperature is  332.1 k. 

 The increasing of the solar radiation increases the air 

temperature (fro m 315 k to 224.5 k) and velocity in  

the solar chimney (from 2.25 m/s  to 2.75 m/s ). 

332 
 
 

330 
 

 

328 
 
 

326 

 
 

324 
 
 

322 

15° °20 °25 °30 

collector angle(°) 

2.8 

2.7 

2.6 

2.5 

2.4 

2.3 

2.2 

2.1 

2 

400 500 600 700 800 900 

solar radiation(W/m²) 

325 

324 

323 

322 

321 

320 

319 

318 

317 

316 

500 600 700 

solar radiation (w / m²) 

800 900 

Te
m

pe
ra

tu
re

 
(k

) 

a
ir

 t
e

m
p

e
r
a

t
u

r
e

(k
) 

v
e

lo
c
it

y
(m

/
s
) 



Hadda Nouar  et al 

IJECA-ISSN: 2543-3717. 

 

 
Page 38 

 
 

 

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https://link.springer.com/journal/10973