An Experimental Study on Performance Assessment of Solar Updraft Tower Power Plant with Guide Vanes

Abstract

Solar updraft tower (SUT) plant is one of the viable passive energy technologies for carbon-free power generation. However, the lower thermal performance of the plant is still a major huddle for its global acceptance. The main aim of the present study is to improve the performance of the plant by providing guide vanes inside the canopy. A SUT plant was developed, where the height of the chimney, collector inclination angle and diameter of collector were 6 m, 30° and 3.5 m, respectively. The flow and performance parameters of the plant were measured and analyzed. Two distinct scenarios such as Case1: the SUT plant and Case2: Case1 with guide vanes were studied. It was observed that the flow and performance of the system were enhanced significantly in Case2 compared to Case1. The maximum hourly average velocity at chimney base and maximum theoretical power potential were enhanced by 9.4 and 10.7%, respectively, at 13.30 h for Case2. For the study period of 13 h, the overall efficiency of the SUT system was enhanced by 46.7% in Case2 compared to Case1.

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by (i) Science &Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi—110 070, India, Grant No. File Number: EEQ/2016/000111 and (ii) Center of Excellence (CoE) under TEQIP-II, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal, India, Ref. No: TEQIP/CoE/2016.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pritam Das

Pritam Das is a Ph.D. student at National Institute of Technology Warangal, India. He received his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from DRIEMS, BPUT, Odisha in 2013, completed his M. Tech. in Thermal Engineering from College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar in 2017. His research interests are (i) computational fluid dynamics, (ii) comfort conditioning, (iii) heat and fluid flow analysis on livestock buildings, (iv) solar energy, (v) solar updraft tower and solar vortex engine. He is currently working on solar updraft tower and solar vortex engine. He has 12 publications in international reputed journals and 6 in international conferences. He got certificate for all India rank of 89^th on 7^th National cyber-Olympiad.

V. P. Chandramohan

V. P. Chandramohan is presently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Warangal, India. He graduated in Mechanical engineering from Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in 2001, completed his Master of Engineering in Thermal Power Engineering from Annamalai University in 2002 and MBA Project Management in 2009. He obtained his Ph.D. from IIT Delhi, India in 2012. His research interests are (i) computational fluid dynamics, (ii) convection and conduction heat transfer, (iii) drying and simultaneous solution of heat and mass transfer, (iv) solar energy, (v) solar updraft tower and solar vortex plant. He has more than 120 publications in international reputed journals, book chapters and conferences. He is handling a lot of sponsored research projects from various funding sources. He got various awards such as a Gold medal for ME (Thermal Power) and Dr. S. Sathik prize from Annamalai University, DST-SERB Empowerment Scheme Award 2016, and ScienceDirect TOP 25 Hottest Articles award. He is serving as editorial board member and reviewer in various reputed journals in his own field of expertise.