Author(s)

ALI ISMAEEL, HUSSAIN AL-KAYIEM, AKLILU BAHETA, MOHAMMED AURYBI

Abstract

A preliminary experimental model of solar vortex power generation (SVPG) has been built for the evaluation of the newly introduced system. It experienced set back in the design of the inflow guiding arrangement. This paper presents a numerical simulation of swirl air generator as part of the proposed SVPG. ANSYS FLUENT software has been used to solve Navier-Stokes and energy equations in cylindrical coordinates system integrated with discrete ordinates radiation model. The configuration of the swirl air generator was modelled and simulated with eight air inflow. Each air inflow comprised of the open slot for air flow and guide vane. Two different heights, 0.3 m and 0.6 m of the air entry have been simulated. The Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation procedure has been validated with the help of results that were acquired through the measurements carried out utilizing the experimental model constructed in the solar research site (SRS) at the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia. The computational results show that by increasing the height of guide vanes and the inflow slots the swirling strength enhanced by 50%. The mass flow rate under the same operational solar and weather conditions was improved by 50%. Thereby, a decision has been made to modify the existing system based on the present CFD simulation results.

Keywords

renewable energy, solar energy, solar thermal, solar updraft, swirl generator