Testing axial flow solar chimney turbine using wind tunnel

Abstract

The solar chimney power plant (SCPP) is a modernistic and promising technology, which utilizes the combination of solar heating and chimney effect for producing electricity. Solar collector, updraft tower and air turbine are the main components of a solar chimney unit, however, the turbine plays a royal role because it converts the kinetic energy of the heating air into useful mechanical energy. In this study, I measured the power, flow rate, rotational speed and pressure drop of the designed and industrial turbines within the wind tunnel, and the power coefficient of the turbines are calculated by measured values. The turbine was designed according to the blade element theory modified to consider the surrounding duct. we measured the electric power, flow rate and pressure drop of the turbine, and the power coefficient of the turbine is calculated by measured values. Testing of the designed and industrial turbine within wind tunnel shows that the highest power coefficient of the designed turbine is 0.45, while the highest power coefficient of the industrial turbine is 0.32. The designed turbine produces 28.89% higher than the industrial one.