CFD investigation of temperature distribution, air flow pattern and thermal comfort in natural ventilation of building using solar chimney

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate air flow, temperature distribution and thermal confort in natural ventilation induced by solar chimney for different operating.

Design/methodology/approach

Numerical simulation is performed using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package ANSYS CFX software to understand the effects of air temperature, air velocity and solar heat flux on the performance of the solar chimney and thermal comfort. The comfort level was evaluated using the air diffusion performance index (ADPI) according to ASHRAE (55-210). The flow was investigated at inclination angles 45° solar heat flux 550-750 W/m² and in a solar chimney of 1.4 m length, 0.6 m width and 0.20 m air gab.

Findings

The numerical results from the present simulation were first validated with experimental data, which was used for the thermal comfort indexes calculation. The obtained results of the analysis showed that the used numerical technique could accurately predict air flow and temperature distribution in natural ventilated building using solar chimney; the air temperature, air velocity and solar heat flux have a significant impact on thermal comfort; the temperature of 19°C with velocity of 0.15 m.s⁻¹ gives the best effective draft temperature (EDT) satisfy ASHRAE (55-210) criteria that V = 0.35 m.s⁻¹ and EDT range between −1.7 and 1.1.

Originality/value

In the present paper, air flow, temperature distribution and thermal comfort inside a room equipped with inclined solar chimney were numerically investigated and analyzed. The commercial CFD package (CFX 15) is used. Calculations are carried out in an empty room without any human or mechanical activity and the numerical results are compared with measurement points.

Citation

Dhahri, M. and Aouinet, H. (2020), "CFD investigation of temperature distribution, air flow pattern and thermal comfort in natural ventilation of building using solar chimney", World Journal of Engineering, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 78-86. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJE-09-2019-0261