Cooling performance of a passive hybrid system consisted of domed roof and solar chimney: A numerical approach

ABSTRACT

Achieving efficient solutions for saving energy in buildings has become one of the significant concerns in recent years. Heating and cooling passive systems such as Trombe wall, solar chimney, and plant wall has proved to be practical, especially in hot and dry climatic conditions. In the present work, a hybrid passive system comprised of a solar chimney and a domed roof has been numerically modeled to improve the indoor air temperature distribution and comfort conditions in a test room located in Yazd, Iran. For the purpose of this study, two scenarios were investigated: various heights of the domed roof (four cases) and different locations of the inlet vents (five cases). The results included air temperature distribution, average air velocity and mass flow rate in the vents as well as comfort conditions. According to the results, the domed roof with 0.7 m height resulted in the best performance in terms of comfort conditions. Furthermore, placing the inlet vents in the lower part of the room led to more ventilation of air and better air temperature distribution and comfort conditions compared to other arrangements of the inlet vents.

KEYWORDS:

• Solar chimney
• domed roof
• comfort conditions