Comparison of Corrugated and Flat Roofs in a Roof Top Solar Chimney by CFD Modeling

Solar chimney is an inventive application of renewable energy that was inspired from the nature. It can be used for natural building ventilation. Roof top solar chimney (RTSC) is a special type of solar chimney that uses the roof surface as a solar collector. In this study new configuration of roof was compared to flat roof. The zigzag and curve roofs were studied in comparison to flat roof using CFD modeling. Continuity, momentum balance in the form of Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes, k- turbulent equations and energy balance at steady state conditions were solved numerically using finite volume approach by Ansys Fluent software. The results show that corrugated roof in shape of the curve roof is better than zigzag and flat roof and in the case of zigzag and curve roofs, the roof average surface heat transfer coefficients × roof areas in comparison to flat roof were increased 22.3 and 28.3%, respectively. It causes an increase of 3.6 and 8.5% in inlet volumetric flow rate of the zigzag and curve cases in comparison to the flat case.

Keywords:

Roof Top Solar Chimney (RTSC) , Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) , Modeling , Corrugated , Renewable Energy