Experimental Investigation on The effects of opening areas on solar chimney performance

This paper presents an experimental project of solar chimney power plant (SCPP) designed in the area of Ouargla (south of Algeria). The prototype's collector is square (5m×5m) and 6m height tilted by 30.8° angle compared to the horizontal. The collector periphery opening height is variable during this work: 1cm, 5cm, 10cm and 20cm. The temperature distributions under the collector of the (SCPP) are measured as function of its opening height. The results show that the opening periphery has an important effect on the airflow temperature. The air temperature is inversely proportional with the opening height. The highest temperature that indicates the variation between the collector opening and the ambient reached 38.1°C. This high difference creates a driving force of airflow under the collector reaching therefore 3.5 m/s of speed able to lunch a turbine generator in order to produce electricity.