Vortex field simulation and analysis of a solar updraft power engine

Abstract

The behaviour of artificially generated vortex by solar utilization is not well understood, as it is compressible, turbulent and 3-D. The present paper is aimed to simulate and analyse a new solar updraft power system, named vortex generation engine (VGE) to provide basic understanding of the artificial vortex. The main focus is on the effect of the upper plate diameter on the vortex structure. The simulation was carried out by CFD using ANSYS FLUENT 15. The modelled engine has 1.0 m outer diameter, 0.6 m height and 8 slots on the circumferential of the VGE for the air flow from the solar collector zone to the engine zone. The numerical procedure was validation by comparing the predicted temperature results with experimental measurements. The results have demonstrated that the upper hole of the VGE has considerable effect on the vortex generation. When the diameter of the upper hole increased from 0.3 m to 0.9 m, the strength of the generated vortex decreased. The visualization through CFD simulation illustrates that a flow circulation exists at many regions in the engine body, which reduce the system performance. As the technique is new, there is a lot of room for further investigation and improvement of the design parameters of the proposed engine.