A numerical comparative study of axial flow turbines for solar chimney power plant

In sunny regions, solar chimney power plants (SCPP) is a promising technology depends mainly on renewable energy sources. This requires an efficient design of the SCPP components to enhance its reliability and expansibility. Since the turbine is the key component of the SCPP, this article presents a comparative simulation study of three different designs of the SCPP turbine in order to substantiate which one is the most suitable. These designs are based on: the so-called matrix through flow method (MTFM), the classic blade element theory (BET), and a modification of the BET based design to consider the enclosure duct of the turbine. The analysis is based on numerical simulations of the whole SCPP unit using the computational fluid dynamics module ANSYS CFX v18.1. The numerical results of the three designs showed that the modified BET based design gives the highest output power, compared to the two other designs. This study provides recommendations for the design and implementation of SCPPs.