Numerical analysis on the influence of ambient crosswind on the performance of solar updraft power plant system

The solar updraft power plant system (SUPPS) is a novel kind of solar thermal application, which uses the fluid buoyancy of the chimney effect to achieve output power. To investigate the impact of a strong ambient crosswind on the system output power through the collector inlet and chimney outlet, numerical analysis on the performances of a SUPPS identical to the prototype in Manzanares, Spain which is exposed to the external crosswind with different velocities is carried out in this paper. A geometrical model including the SUPPS and its outside ambience is built and the mathematical models to describe the fluid flow, heat transfer and output power of the whole system are further developed. The pressure, temperature and velocity distribution of the air in the ambience and SUPPS together with the output power of the SUPPS are analyzed. The numerical simulation results reveal that ambient crosswind has influence on the performance of the SUPPS in two ways. On one hand, when the ambient crosswind is comparably weak, it will deteriorate the flow field and reduce the output power of the SUPPS. On the other hand, it may even increase the mass flow rate and output power if the crosswind is strong enough.