Modeling and Simulation of Natural Ventilation of Building Using Solar Chimney

Natural ventilation is an important means to improve thermal comfort and to reduce the energy consumption for residential buildings. Solar chimney system can be used to enhance the natural ventilation, which can make full use of solar energy to produce upward momentum to a mass of air, thereby converting thermal energy into kinetic energy. In this paper, natural ventilation flow through a two-dimensional but real sized room is investigated numerically, using commercial CFD software ANSYS (FLOTRAN). The chimney is turn like a parallel channel with one plate kept at a uniform temperature that is higher than ambient air while the other plate and the room's entire wall are insulated. Effects on ventilation flow rate and flow pattern due to a range of changing factors are investigated. The factors include different air gap widths and inclination of solar chimney. It is found that these factors affect the exit velocity. Suggestions for optimum construction design of solar chimney have been put forward based on a number of simulations results. Results showed that for different air gap widths and angles, maximum flow in solar chimney are obtained. Findings are helpful in designing a natural ventilation solar chimney for residential buildings.