The influence of structural parameters of unpowered wind pressure wheel on the performance of wind supercharged solar chimney power plant

Based on the basic size and operating environment of the prototype solar chimney power plant(SCPP) in Spain, a series of simulation models were built in order to study the performance of the unpowered wind pressure wheel which is installed at the top of the wind supercharged solar chimney power plant (WS-SCPP). The influence of the structural parameters of the wind pressure wheel on the system performance was studied. The results show that: with the increase of H-type vertical axis blade installation angle, the negative pressure acting on the chimney outlet and shaft power of the system both increase but then decrease. When the installation angle is 3°, the negative pressure value at the bottom of the wheel is the largest, the negative pressure increases by 3. 72Pa, the system shaft power increases by 4. 54kW. When using asymmetric airfoils and concave-in configuration, the negative pressure produced by the wheel increases by 1. 3Pa, the system shaft power increases by 0.81kW. When the airfoils use concave-out configuration, the negative pressure at the bottom of the wheel is increased by 5. 6Pa, the system shaft power is increased by 4. 95kW. When the spiral blade is adopted and the helicity is 72°, the negative pressure produced by the wheel increases by 14.61Pa, the system shaft power increases by 14. 95kW. The structural optimization of the unpowered wind pressure wheel can greatly enhance the negative pressure at the chimney outlet to improve the chimney effect, which is a great way to significantly enhance the ability of power generation of WS-SCPP and make the commercial application of SCPP more possible.