Impact of chimney divergence and sloped absorber on energy efficacy of a solar chimney power plant (SCPP)

A numerical study is carried out meticulously to scrutinize the impact of different shapes of chimneys like circular (outer dia, dc), convergent (outer dia, 0.5dc), divergent (outer dia, 1.5dc), sudden contraction (outer dia, 0.5dc), and sudden expansion (outer dia, 1.5dc) on the performance of an SCPP. Furthermore, the parametric impact with different chimney divergence angles (CDA, phi), and ground absorber slope angle (GSA, gamma) on the SCPP performance is also scrutinized. Optimum divergence angle (phi = + 0.75 degrees ) enhances the power generation up to - 47% (76 kW) with a horizontal ground absorber surface. An increase or decrease in CDA lessens the power generation. With a sloped ground absorber angle gamma = 0.6 degrees, the gain in power generation is 60% (82 kW). The study of combination of ground sloped absorber (gamma = 0.6 degrees) and divergent chimney (phi = + 0.75 degrees ) shows enhancement of the power generation upto 80% (92 kW) more than the classical Manzaranes plant.