Accepted Manuscript

Title: The effect of solar chimney layout on ventilation rate in

buildings

Author: Somaye Asadi Maryam Fakhari Akram

Mahdaviparsa

PII: S0378-7788(16)30303-6
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.04.047
Reference: ENB 6598

To appear in: ENB

Received date: 13-10-2015

Revised date: 17-4-2016
Accepted date: 18-4-2016

Please cite this article as: Somaye Asadi, Maryam Fakhari, Akram Mahdaviparsa, The
effect of solar chimney layout on ventilation rate in buildings, Energy and Buildings
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.04.047

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 The Effect of Solar Chimney Layout on Ventilation Rate in Buildings
Somaye Asadi*1, Maryam Fakhari2, Akram Mahdaviparsa3
1
Assistant Professor, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA,
asadi@engr.psu.edu,
2
PhD student, Tehran Art University, Iran, maryamfakhari@ut.ac.ir
3
Faculty member, Payamnour University, Iran, mahdaviparsa@ut.ac.ir

Abstract

Design of solar chimney in buildings is considered as one of the passive ventilation methods
enhancing the ventilation for adjacent spaces through renewable energy of sun and applying
chimney effect phenomenon in an air canal. The layout of solar chimney in different parts of the
building affects the ventilation rate and performance of solar chimney due to its effect on air
flow rate. This research examines the performance of solar chimney based on its layout in
southern, west-southern and east-southern part of the building. Then, the performance of solar
chimney is compared in the plan center and southern façade-connect part. To achieve these
objectives, EnergyPlus software was used to simulate the performance of solar chimney
connected to a typical seven-story office building located in Isfahan. The results were presented
in terms of two parameters including building layout and materials of the walls and glasses. The
results show that locating solar chimney in east-southern part of the building provides maximum
ventilation rate due to the maximum radiation and two side absorbing wall. It was also found that
every solar chimney provides necessary ventilation rate for spaces attached to it.

Keywords: Solar Chimney, Ventilation, Energy Simulation, Energyplus Software, Layout

1. Introduction

Various factors affect indoor air quality in buildings. Insulating the building and suitably sealing
the openings to reduce thermal loss make the pollution exacerbated since there is no air
penetration or leakage out. Therefore, ventilation is inevitable. Using inactive system in building
ventilation resolves this problem and is a step toward reduction of energy consumption and
environmental pollution.

Solar chimney is a thermosyphon solar inactive system which improves the indoor air quality by
enhancing natural ventilation in the building due to chimney effect [2]. Solar chimney is similar
to conventional chimney except its south-ward wall is glass. Solar rays pass the glass and are
absorbed by absorbing wall surface to warm the air inside chimney. Because of chimney effect,
the air is warmed and contracted less which makes it move upward. This upward movement

* Please direct all communications on this paper to Dr. Somayeh Asadi, asadi@engr.psu.edu
makes a drive force causing the air below replace with solar chimney’s air. Thus, the natural
ventilation increases and the air pollution will be removed from indoor [3]. During the day, the
mass wall acts as heat reserve making the solar chimney performance continue long after sunset
or even the process used for night ventilation as widely used in warm arid climate [2].

One of the most important factors affecting chimney ventilation is the difference of indoor and
outdoor temperature. In the summer, there is not much difference in indoor and outdoor
temperature; therefore, the buoyancy effect in ordinary chimney obeying chimney ventilation
rules is not sufficient with the use of solar chimney. The sufficient temperature difference can be
obtained by maximizing the solar absorption. The combination of radiation and convection in
solar chimney results in remarkable movement of air and consequently increases the ventilation
rate [4]. In the buildings located in warm-arid climates, the windows are closed during the day to
prevent the dust coming inside the building. In this case, solar chimney can provide the required
space ventilation. As solar chimney on a wall increases the thermal resistance, it affects the
thermal load of building through ventilation and reduces the heat loss through conduction in
walls.
The advantages of solar chimney versus natural ventilation are: 1) keeping resident’s privacy
since natural ventilation does not control view to internal space due to open window, 2) thermal
comfort with less air movement in internal space since natural ventilation makes noise and
intolerable condition if the air velocity excesses 1 m/s, 3) preventing the unwanted factors such
as dust, pollution and outside noise which may enter the building from the openings, 4) increase
in thermal comfort during cold dry nights of windless summer when the natural ventilation is of
less power. Therefore, solar chimney is defined as a natural ventilation system saving energy and
reducing the operation cost [5].
2. Literature Review
In the recent two decades, there have been conducted numerous theoretical, numerical and
observational studies about solar chimneys [3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. The research methods
consisted of lab measurements of some influencing factors such as temperature, air displacement
patterns using different techniques and experimental studies [3,4,7,8,9,10,13,14] and computer
simulation [5,6,7,11,12]. The first study on solar chimneys was carried out in 1993 by Bansal et
al. [6], who proved the ventilation potential increase for solar chimney in a well-designed system
through a mathematical model for permanent situation.
Having investigated the effect of different parameters on the performance of solar chimney
system, Khedari et al. [7], developed a numerical model to study the effect of different types of
solar chimneys and their performance. They concluded that solar chimneys influence the air flow
production. It was found that with solar chimney, room temperature reaches ambient temperature
due to the natural ventilation created by solar chimney.

The performance of solar chimneys in ventilated office buildings was also investigated by
Khedari et al. [7]. It was concluded that solar chimneys reduce the daily consumption of
electricity in HVAC system. Sudaporn and Bundit [8], conducted an experimental study to
examine the effect of solar chimney on the increase of indoor ventilation with and without wet
roof. The results of their study indicated that external chimney can decrease indoor temperature
1°C to 3.5°C depending on the ambient temperature and solar radiation. In another study
conducted by Afonso and Oliveira [9], a thermal model was proposed to show its applicability
with the technique of gas tracer for a solar chimney connected to a 12 m2 room with brick wall
and concrete ceiling. They also found that increase of thermal absorbent reduces the flow during
the day and increases its rate at night. They proved that using insulator enhances system
performance and the 5 cm thickness is enough for insulator. Charvat et al. [10] showed that with
the increase of thermal mass, air velocity increases during the night. Using solar chimney during
the day is followed by 25% increase of air velocity. Rakesh and Chengwang [11] performed a
numerical study to understand the air flow in solar chimney. The results of this study showed
that total rate of air mass flow in a solar chimney with vertical wall is strongly influenced by the
reverse flow and air temperature in the exit canal.
Miyazaki et al. [3] studied the performance of a solar chimney in an office building in Tokyo.
They concluded that the daily energy required for ventilation decreased by 90% in January and
February. The reduction was about 50% over the year. In a similar study, Chantawong [12]
conducted a numerical and experimental study to analyze the performance of a solar glass
chimney under the typical weather conditions in Thailand. The results showed that heat reception
through glass wall can be reduced by increasing air circulation.
Koronaki [5] used Energyplus software to investigate three conventional solar chimneys. The
first model is a solar chimney with the duct formed between the double glazed transparent cover
and the absorbing wall. The second one is a solar chimney with the duct attached behind the
double glazed absorbing wall and third model is solar chimney with the duct located in between
the two double glazed absorbing walls, one facing eastward and the other westward, or
southward and northward, accordingly. The result showed that the cooling power performance
significantly depends on its location and orientation. It was found that for a typical solar chimney
of 3 m high and 0.1 m wide with aerial hole of 0.2 m, facing southward, the cooling power
MJ MJ
performance at night is 3.27 to 10 mday . In the second and third models, it is 14.07 m  day

southward. The second model facing west created an air flow rate of 98% as much as the first
model facing south.
Marefat and Haghighi [13] examined the combination of a solar chimney and an underground air
canal. The results of this study showed that solar chimney can be installed to utilize the
underground system without any requirement of electrical energy. In addition, they found that
the radiation reception rate and ambient temperature affect the system performance. They
proposed the combination of solar chimney and evaporative cooling canal is able to supply good
air condition for indoor space especially in warm and dry climate, even with low radiation. They
also found that using solar chimney with different dimensions according to space's dimension is
a suitable way to control the number of air exchange times in hour and room temperature [14].
As using solar chimneys is a suitable way to increase inactive ventilation in the building, solar
chimneys with higher performance can be designed. Despite numerous studies on solar
chimneys, there hasn’t been done any comprehensive study on their design in terms of their
layout in the building. The layout of solar chimney affects the solar energy absorption in a way
that the higher reception of solar energy increases the solar chimney power. The question arises
here is how architectural design of solar chimney affects its performance?

3. Methodology

In this study, a solar chimney connected to a seven story office building was modeled in
Energyplus software. An office building was used because of its open plan provides air
movement in internal spaces. In addition, a multi-story building provides the possibility of solar
chimney design in center with and without wall (similar to atrium).
To investigate the solar chimney performance, three methods have been used including
observation, simulation, and calculation. Due to less use of solar chimneys in building, it is not
possible to measure its actual temperature. As computer simulation provides a virtual
environment to investigate every single part of thermal behavior of the building, using advanced
numerical calculation software tools is a good alternative method. In this method, it is possible to
create any building in all climate conditions in the virtual environment and the results obtained
do not have any numerical and time restrictions [15].
In this research, simulation was done by Energyplus software version 8.1.1.009. The developed
model was validated with experimental data. The dimensions of rooms in simulated model were
8×6 m at 2.7 m height. The chimney width in all models was 2 m and its height was one meter
above the ceiling of the last floor, e.g. 22 m. The optimal ratio of height to depth in Isfahan is
H
11 [17].
An air entrance for each room was considered at 1.3×2 m. Air entrance to chimney is through a
window at 0.5 m height and 1.5 m wide at 0.3 m distance from the floor. Air exit from chimney
was considered to be at upper part to achieve greatest performance. The floor coating was
concrete and the roof was consisted of concrete and a layer of insulation. The outer shell wall
had 10 cm concrete with 5 cm insulator. The wall between room and chimney acting as
absorbent was consisted of a 5 cm insulator and 10 cm concrete. Figure 1 shows the air
movement path and model dimension.

The simulations were done in a representative day of warm season (21st of July). Based on the
weather data of Energyplus software, for Isfahan, the average temperature in working hours is
33oC, wind velocity in the environment is 1.8 m s and solar radiation is 650 w m2 .
 Air Exit

Air
Entrance

Solar
Chimn
ey

Air Entrance
Room
Solar
Chimn
ey

Figure1. The path of air movement

In this research, seven different models were used. First, three different solar chimneys were
simulated where the solar chimney was connected to internal space and on the other side with
external spaces. In the first model, solar chimney was connected to the building in the south side
and three sides were glass and one side was absorbing wall (Figure 2). In the second model, solar
chimney was located in the southwest of plan in which the south and west sides were glass and
north and east walls of solar chimney acted as an absorbing wall and received solar radiation
from south and west (Figure 3). In the third model, solar chimney was in the southeast part of the
plan. In this model, the reaction was received in south and east part (Figure 4). The performance
of these models was compared with each other.

Figure 2. Model 1 Figure 3. Model 2

Figure 4. Model 3
The next four models are then compared with each other. According to Figure 5 as the forth
model, the solar chimney can be located in the middle of the building. This model was like a
vertical canal continuing to one meter higher than the last floor and the chimney walls acted as
the absorbing surface. The next model as the fifth one was building with the void created on the
center of the plan (in all floors) and the solar chimney was made in top of this void (with 1 meter
height and the area as much as the void). This model acts the same as atrium. This model is
shown in Figure 6. In the sixth model, shown in Figure 7, solar chimney was located in the south
side but only the south side was glass and other three sides were absorbing wall. The seventh
model shown in Figure 8 was similar to the sixth model except for the absorbing wall on the
roof. Other consideration including air entrance and exit, absorbing wall material, glass,
dimension and sizes were similar.

Figure 5. Model 4 Figure 6. Model 5

Figure 7. Model 6 Figure 8. Model 7

4. Results and Discussions
4.1. Model Behavior Analysis
m3
Figure 9 shows the hourly ventilation rate in terms of s in July 21st in three different models
(i.e. models 1, 2, and 3) based on the Isfahan climate conditions which was taken from weather
database of Energyplus software [18].

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

1.2

0.8
Air Flow Rate ( m3/s)

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Time (hr)

Figure 9. Hourly ventilation rate

As it depicted in this figure, in the early hours of day when the radiation reception is on east, the
air volume flow rate in the third model is greater due to absorbing greater solar radiation;
however, in the afternoon, the performance of second model is better. For example, at 10:00, the
third model provides the maximum ventilation rate of 1.11 m3/s. In the second model at the same
time, the ventilation rate is only 0.77 m3/s, while at 15:00, it is 1.17 m3/s. The third model
provides volume flow rate of 0.91 m3/s at the same time. The first model has moderate status in
comparison with the second and third models. In the morning (before 12), it has higher
ventilation rate than the second model and less than the third model. In the afternoon the trend
becomes reversed. The performance of the first model become less than the second one and
better than the third one. During the noon time, the second and third models provide better
ventilation rate than the first model. At night, the first model performance is lower than the
second and third models, due to low area of absorbing wall. Figure 10 shows the volume flow
rate of air in 21th of July. Daily ventilation rate was calculated once in 24 hours and once just in
the working hours (8:00 to 16:00).
 1.2
Average ventilation rate in 24 hours Average ventilation rate in working hours

0.8
Air Flow Rate ( m3/s)

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

Figure 10. Volume flow rate of air in 21th of July in models 1-3

As can be seen in Figure 10, the daily air volume flow rate in 24 hours is as follow: the third
model has the greatest amount followed by the second model. Since the building is an office, it is
suitable to compare the daily ventilation rate in working hours in different models. The
comparison shows that the third model has the greatest ventilation rate followed by the first and
second models, respectively. The third model with the greatest ventilation rate is considered to
be the reference model.

Table1. Average ventilation rate in models 1-3

Date/Time Model Model Model
1 2 3
Average ventilation 85.55 96.87 100
rate in 24 hours
Average ventilation 94.57 90.08 100
rate in working
hours
The behavior of the next four models (forth to seventh models) is shown in Figure 11. As shown
in Figure 11, the models 4 and 5 act similarly during all hours of the day as they receive less
solar radiation. Therefore, the absorbing wall does not play an important role. The seventh model
has a better performance than the sixth model in all the time except for hours between 11 to 17.
1
Model 4 Model 5 Model 6 Model 7

0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6
Air Flow Rate ( m3/s)

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Figure 11. Hourly ventilation rate among models 4-7

0.9
Average ventilation rate in 24 hours Average ventilation rate in working hours

0.8

0.7

0.6
Air Flow Rate ( m3/s)

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
Model 4 Model 5 Model 6 Model 7

Figure12. Volume flow rate of air in 21th of July in models 1-3

The Figure 12 shows the average of daily ventilation during the day and in working hours. As
illustrated in Figure 12, models 6 and 7 have better performance over the course of the day and
act similarly. The seventh model has the best performance in working hours. Based on Table 2,
the seventh model with the greatest ventilation rate is considered to be reference model in
comparison with models 4-7.

Table 2. Average ventilation rate in models 4-7

Model Model Model Model
Date/Time
4 5 6 7
Average
ventilation
37.99 38.55 74.89 100
rate in 24
hours
Average
ventilation
rate in 59.44 60.18 97.35 100
working
hours

Using equation (1), we can calculate the area of the space each model can respond in ventilation.

(1) ACH= q×3600/ V

ACH: the number of air exchange times (load in hours)

Q: air volume flow (m3/s)

V: space volume ( m 3 )

Considering 4 times of air exchange per hour [19], we can determine the area of the space that
each model can provide the ventilation rate for (refer to Table 3).

Table 3. Area of space provided by models 1-7

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6 Model 7

Area 286.63 273.00 303.06 138.30 140.02 226.51 232.66

( m2 )

4.2. Verification and Validation of Simulation Model

The observational data extracted from a research done by Hirunlabh et al. [16], was used to
validate the simulation result. Their model consisted of a solar chimney with depth of 14.5cm
and width of 1m and its height is 2m which is attached to southern part of a room with
dimensions of 3.35  4.45m and 2.6m heights. Materials used in veneer of walls were plywood
and gypsum plates and CPAC Monier concrete tiles (1.5  42  33 cm) were used in the roof.
Floor coating materials were plywood and concrete-made beams. Absorbing wall consisted of a
zinc-made plate, insulator, and plywood with respectively depth of 0.7, 25 and 4 mm. The depth
of glass using in solar chimney was 4 mm. There were two air entrances in solar chimney with
dimension 5  25 cm which were located in the lower part of it. Also there were two air exits with
5  25 cm in the top part of solar chimney. A model of solar chimney with height of 2 m was
measured in Bangkok on 7th and 12th of December [16].

Figure 13 shows the observational data based on air mass flow rate from 8 to 15 during the day
[16].

Figure 13. Air mass flow rate (hourly) in solar chimney model [16]

A model of solar chimney and room attached to it was simulated in Energyplus software which
was based on experimental data of Bangkok weather data. Figure 14 shows the results of
aforementioned model for a solar chimney with 2 meters height on 12th of December.
Afterwards, result derived from referenced article [16], was compared with result of simulation
which was done by authors to reach a valid conclusion.
 Figure 14. Air mass Flow rate (hourly) in simulation model of solar chimney (reference: the
authors)

Figure 15 compares the obtained results from simulation with experimental data of a solar
chimney with height of 2 m and depth of 0.14 m on 12th of December. As it could be seen,
difference between observational model and simulation model is trivial and therefore simulation
results are acceptable.

Figure15. Comparison between simulation model and observational model in solar chimney with
height 2 meters (reference: authors)

5. Conclusions

The comparison of hourly ventilation rate among first three models shows that in the early hours
of day when the radiation reception is on east, the air volume flow rate in the third model is
greater due to the greater solar radiation receiving and in the afternoon, the performance of
second model is better. The first model has moderate status in comparison with the second and
third models. But daily air volume flow rate in 24 hours is as follow: the third mode has the
greatest amount followed by the second model. As the building is used for official work, it is
suitable to compare the daily ventilation rate in working hours in different models.

The behavior analysis of the next four models shows that the models 4 and 5 act similarly all the
hours of the day as they receive low radiation. Therefore, the absorbing wall doesn’t play an
important role. The seventh model has a better performance than the sixth model all the time
except for hours between 11 to 17. Daily air volume flow rate in 24 hours in models 6 and 7 acts
similarly and have better performance in average. The seventh model has the best performance in
working hours. Every solar chimney provides necessary ventilation rate for spaces attached to it.
Area of mentioned spaces is between 140 and 303 m2. The most area belongs to model 1 and the
less one is associated with model 4.

Therefore, the performance of solar chimney in these seven models can be summarized as
follows:

1. Model 3: solar chimney connected to southeast of building

2. Model 1: solar chimney in the south of building with radiation from three sides
3. Model 2: solar chimney connected to southwest of the building
4. Model 7: solar chimney connected to south of building with radiation from one side
5. Model 6: solar chimney without wall connected to south of building
6. Model 5: solar chimney without wall in plan center
7. Model 4: solar chimney in plan center in vertical canal.
6. References

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