Energy 170 (2019) 683e708

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Review

Mathematical models of solar chimneys with a phase change material

for ventilation of buildings: A review using global energy balance
R. Vargas-Lo
n a, *, I. Herna

pez a, J. Xama
ndez-Pe

rez b, J. Arce a, I. Zavala-Guille

n c,

nez d, M.R. Heras d
M.J. Jime
a
gicoNacionalde M

Tecnolo exico, CENIDET, Prol. Av. Palmira S/N. Col. Palmira. Cuernavaca, Morelos CP62490, Mexico
b
rezAuto
Universidad Jua
nomade Tabasco, UJAT. Divisio
nAcad
emicade Ingenieríay Arquitectura. CarreteraCunduaca
n-Jalpade M

n,
endez km. 1, Cunduaca
Tabasco, CP86690, Mexico
c
nCientíficay de Educacio
Centro de Investigacio
nSuperior de Ensenada, CICESE. CarreteraEnsenada-Tijuana No. 3918, ZonaPlayitas. Ensenada, Baja
California, CP22860, Mexico
d
Energy Efficiency in Buildings R&D Unit, CIEMAT, AvenidaComplutenseNo. 40, Madrid E-28040, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The solar chimney is one concept currently explored by scientists and designers for reducing heat gain
Received 11 August 2018 and inducing natural cooling in both commercial and residential buildings. Solar chimneys can be
Received in revised form installed on the building walls and roofs. In this sense, a significant amount of research work has been
24 November 2018
done on solar chimney since the 1990s. This paper presents an overview of transient mathematical
Accepted 19 December 2018
Available online 26 December 2018
models for solar chimneys with/without a phase change material. The review focuses on the Global
Energy Balance (GEB) models and a short description of the main works is reported. The analysis of the
literature on the solar chimney modeling using GEBhighlights that the transient mathematical model are
Keywords:
Solar chimney
scarce, from the authors' knowledge, there are only 24 published works and only six studies incorporated
Phase change material a phase change material (PCM) in a solar chimney. Five steady mathematical models available in the
Global energy balance literature were analyzed, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each model. Based on the
analysis, it is concluded that the model - III and model - V are more appropriate to model the transient
state with respect to the remaining models, and therefore the unsteady mathematical model eIII and
model - V were developed and shown. These models are highly recommended to be implemented as a
solar chimney model in a Building Energy Simulation (BES) program. Finally, we propose a new transient
mathematical model for a double-channel solar chimney, which incorporated a phase change material
(PCM). This new mathematical model allows building designers and engineers to predict the potential
benefit that a solar chimney with PCMmay have for ventilation. Therefore, this paper would provide a
valuable reference for further research into the field of solar chimneys with a PCMand its applications.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
2. Physical and mathematical models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686
2.1. Physical models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686
2.2. Steady state mathematical models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691
2.3. Mathematical model - I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
2.4. Mathematical model - II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
2.5. Mathematical model - III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
2.6. Mathematical model - IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
2.7. Mathematical model - V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: rogeliovl@cenidet.edu.mx (R. Vargas-Lo
pez), jxaman@cenidet.edu.mx (J. Xama
n), ivan.hernandezp@ujat.mx (I. Herna

ndez-Pe

rez), jesuso@cenidet.edu.

n), mjose.jimenez@psa.es (M.J. Jime
mx (J. Arce), ivett@cicese.edu.mx (I. Zavala-Guille
nez), mrosario.heras@ciemat.es (M.R. Heras).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.12.148
0360-5442/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
684
pez et al. / Energy 170 (2019) 683e708
R. Vargas-Lo

2.8. Transient mathematical models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 696

2.9. Mathematical model eIII (transient) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
2.10. Mathematical model eV (transient) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
3. Proposal of a new solar chimney model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
3.1. Transient mathematical models with PCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
3.2. SoChi-O model: mathematical model for a solar chimney with one channel using a PCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
3.3. SoChi-T model: mathematical model for a solar chimney with two channelusing a PCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701
3.4. Effective heat capacity method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
3.5. Verification of the effective heat capacity method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
4. Air flow rate and heat transfer coefficient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
4.1. Correlation for the air mass flow rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
4.2. Radiation heat transfer coefficient from vertical glass cover to sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
4.3. Convection heat transfer from vertical glass cover due to wind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
4.4. Radiation heat transfer coefficient between wall and glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
4.5. Convection heat transfer coefficient between wall and glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
4.6. Overall transfer coefficient from vertical glass cover to ambient (U glass loss ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
4.7. Overall transfer coefficient from vertical wall to room (U wall loss ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
4.8. Overall transfer coefficient from absorber plate to the PCMand between the PCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
5. Physical properties of air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
6. Instantaneous efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
7. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706
Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706

Nomenclature Tf Temperature of the air [K]

Tg Temperature of the glass [K]
A Cross section area of outlet or inlet to air flow channel Tmp Temperature of the absorber plate [K]
[m2] Troom Room temperature [K]
Cd Coefficient of discharge of air channel Tsky Sky temperature [K]
cp Specific heat [J kg
1K
1] t Time [s]
cp; eff Effective heat capacity of the material [J kg
1K
1] glass
U loss Overall heat loss coefficient from the glass [W
d Thickness(distance between wall and glass) [m]
m
2K
1]
G, Gsolar Solar irradiance [W m
2]
U wall Overall heat loss coefficient from the rear of the
Gdif Diffuse solar irradiance on vertical surface [W m
2] loss
solar vertical wall [W m
2K
1]
Gdir
solar Direct solar irradiance on vertical surface [W m
2] V Control volume [m3]
g Gravitational constant [m s
2] Vwind Wind velocity [m s
1]
hcond
mp1
pcm;1 Conductive heat transfer coefficient between the
W Width of air channel [m]
absorber wall and the first layer of the phase change
material [W m
2K
1] Greek symbols
hconv Convective heat transfer coefficient between the a* Absorptance
f
g
glass and the fluid in the channel [W m
2K
1]
a*g Absorptivity of glass
hconv Convective heat transfer coefficient between the a*mp Absorptivity of wall
g
amb
glass and the ambient [W m K ]
2
1 bf Thermal expansion coefficient of air [K
1]
hconv
mp1
f Convective heat transfer coefficient between the d Thicknessof the control volume [m]
absorber plate and the fluid in the channel [W ε Emittance
m
2K
1] εg Emissivity of the glass
εmp Emissivity of the absorber wall
hconv
int Convective heat transfer coefficient between vertical
wall and interior of room [W m
2K
1] G Mean temperature weighting factor [K]
h Instantaneous thermal efficiency [%]
hrad Radiativeheat transfer coefficient between the glass
g
sky lf Thermal conductivity of air [W m
1K
1]
and the sky [W m
2K
1] lmp Thermal conductivity of the absorber plate [W
hrad
mp1
g Radiativeheat transfer coefficient between the m
1K
1]
absorber plate and the glass [W m
2K
1] lw Thermal conductivity of insulation material [W
hrad Radiativeheat transfer coefficient between the m
1K
1]
int
vertical wall and the room [W m
2K
1] mf Dynamic viscosity of air [kg m
1s
1]
L Length of wall [m] r Density [kg m
3]
 rf Density of air [kg m
3]
m Mass flow rate [kg s
1]
Nuconv Average convective Nusseltnumber r* Reflectance
q Heat flux [W m
2] s StefaneBoltzmann constant [W m
2K
4]
T Temperature [K] t* Transmittance
Tamb Ambient temperature [K] t*g Transmissivityof glass

pez et al. / Energy 170 (2019) 683e708
R. Vargas-Lo
1. Introduction
Due to the attractive features of latent heat storage, phase
change materials (PCMs) are mainly used to store energy at a fixed
temperature (melting/solidification temperature) with high energy
density. PCMshave been applied in various systems and aspects
such as energy storage systems, free ventilation, free heating and
cooling for buildings, spacecraft, food, medicine conservation, etc.
[1e5]. PCMsare a better choice comparing to the sensible heat
storage in applications for buildings, because of its nearly
isothermal storing mechanism and high storage density [6e9].
Over the last years, buildings energy efficiency has become a critical
issue what concerns to energy conservation because buildings
represent the sector with the highest energy consumption. In order
to improve building energy efficiency, a growing interest in the
analysis of their thermal performance has emerged in the last de-
cades. Among these analyses, solar energy technologies which
include heating, ventilation, photovoltaic, thermal electricity and
solar architecture have particular attention [10]. One of the effec-
tive ways for utilizing the solar energy in which low-temperature
waste heat can be recovered is solar chimney power plant. The
solar chimney power plant is a power plant that transforms solar
energy into electricity [11e14]. On the other hand, for the natural
ventilation of building, alternatives and new proposals are needed
to improve the thermal performance of buildings to minimize the
use of mechanical equipment for air conditioning purposes. One of
the options for the natural ventilation of buildings is the solar
chimneys [15]. The development and characterization of solar
chimneys are critical because this technology presents a potential
for natural ventilation of buildings [16,17].
Solar chimneys are natural ventilation systems that use solar
Fig. 1. Solar chimney: (top) connected to the façade [18,19], (bottom) attached to the roof [20,21].
685
radiation to produce convective air flows. The convective flows
extract air from the interior of a building or a room, dissipating the
excess of heat from indoors, which contributes to improving the
thermal comfort and the quality of indoor-air by removing con-
taminants. The solar chimney is usually located in the sunniest part
of the building and it is joined to the facade [18,19]or the roof
[20,21], which is connected to the indoors through a ventilation
hole (Fig. 1). Advantages and disadvantages exist for both types of
chimneys are shown in Refs. [22,23]. In general, one can take the
advantages according to the building to adapt the solar chimney
either for a facade or for the roof, trying to have a configuration that
can capture the largest amount of solar energy and cause a higher
mass flow rate.
A simple classification of these systems is by its application as
chimneys for diurnal ventilation and chimneys for nocturnal
ventilation. Solar chimneys for diurnal ventilation have an absorber
surface with low heat capacity. They are typically used in tropical
climates and for buildings with light structures that store a small
amount of thermal energy [24]. On the other hand, chimneys for
nocturnal ventilation, which have high thermal inertia, are char-
acterized by absorber surfaces with high heat capacity, so that they
accumulate heat during the hours with high solar irradiance, and
during the night, they dissipate the accumulated heat producing
nocturnal ventilation [25]. Natural ventilation can also occur during
the day in these chimneys but not as efficiently as chimneys for
diurnal ventilation. Chimneys for nocturnal ventilation are usually
useful in warm climates when the structure of the buildings is
massive, and therefore it is convenient to have heat dissipation
alternatives such as ventilation [26].
Researchers have put their effort in analyzing solar chimney
configurations, the material, typologies, and integrated solar
686
pez et al. / Energy 170 (2019) 683e708
R. Vargas-Lo
chimney to find the better alternative for natural ventilated
building [27e29]. To properly design a solar chimney, it is necessary
to be able to model and predict the airflow rate generated by the
solar chimney exposed to solar irradiance [26]. The literature shows
that there are few calculation tools based on transient state models
for the dimensioning of solar chimneys. The causes of the few
existing studies that consider the unsteady thermal behavior are
because of the computational time required for the modeling,
which could be excessive and impractical. However, particularly
the Global Energy Balance (GEB) models can predict the dynamic
behavior of a system in relatively short times and one can integrate
them with computational tools like Building Energy Simulation
(BES) programs (TRNSYS, EnergyPlus, etc.).
The scientific publications on solar chimneys with GEBmodels in
a transient state are scarce, from the authors' knowledge, there are
only 24 published works. Table 1summarizes these works
[25,30e52]. The table presents a brief description of the case study
and its conditions, as well as the parameters analyzed and the most
relevant results found by each research work. Some of these in-
vestigations are described below. Zrikemand Bilgenin 1987 were
the pioneers in proposing transient state GEBmodels to study solar
chimneys [30]. However, the transient model was only considered
in the absorber wall. The study analyses solar chimneys in a North
African climate to ventilate buildings. The results indicated that the
indoor air temperature could be reduced up to 5  C when a solar
chimney was installed in a typical house. Bouchairand co-workers
published one of the most detailed investigations of a solar chim-
ney [31,32,34]. The authors investigated the solar chimney both,
theoretically and experimentally. The experimental system allowed
both the aspect ratio of the chimney and the size of the inlet to vary
for different plate temperatures. Bouchairet al.,studied many as-
pects of the solar chimney for application in warm climates
including orientation [31]and the ability of the chimney to drive
ventilation throughout the night [32]. The experimental results
showed clear trends of mass flow rate as other physical variables
were altered. Bouchairin Ref. [32]proposed that the maximum flow
occurred when the boundary layers just met in a symmetrically
heated channel. This proposal is however only appropriate for flows
with inlets of 0.1 m width. From the theoretical results, Bouchair-
proposed that the stack pressure created by the heating of the air
within the channel was matched by the pressure losses in the
components that made up the flow path of the air. Also, he pro-
posed that the pressure loss at the outlet was equal to one pressure
head, where Poutlet ¼ K ru2outlet/2. However, Bouchairdid not use the
pressure loss coefficient for ductwork, which meant that the value
of the pressure loss coefficient (K) had to be determined. In
conclusion, the approach adopted by Bouchairis only appropriate
for the configurations that he tested experimentally and it is not a
general model, requiring a fitted “K”variable to get correct pre-
dictions [32]. Thus, its appropriateness for designers of different
types of building components is limited. From all the works pre-
sented in Table 1, only those developed by Refs. [36,39e41]and
[44e48,51,52]considered a transient model for the air temperature
in the channel of the solar chimney. Kaneko et al. [38], Sharma et al.
[39], Li and Liu [45], Liu and Li [47], Lu et al. [49], and Li et al. [50]
considered transient state models because their chimneys incor-
porated phase change material (PCM) into the solar chimneys. In
general, the results of a solar chimney using a phase change ma-
terial show that the temperature variation of PCMand air in the
chimney were available for the natural ventilation in evening and
night periods. Results also showed that the phase change temper-
ature of PCMbenefits the thermal performance of a solar chimney
for nocturnal ventilation.
Despite the advantages of using GEBmodels for solar chimneys,
only six studies have considered a phase change material. Most of
the transient studies developed using GEBare focused on analyzing
the solar chimney orientation and the effects of environmental
conditions, finding that the southern façade is highly recom-
mended to increase air mass flow rate. The optimum channel
thickness ranges between 0.1 and 0.15 m and air velocity around
0.2 m/s were obtained.Studies that consider a high thermal mass
wall, as that made of concrete, determined that a thickness of 20 cm
extends the period of operation of the chimney up to 2 h. On the
other hand, the results indicate that the best thermal behavior of a
solar chimney incorporating a phase change material is obtained
when using a PCMwith a phase change temperature between 35
and 40  C. The results also showed that a lower phase change
temperature (z38  C) can increase the chargeability (and therefore
the dischargeability) of a solar chimney, since a higher phase
change temperature demands high solar radiation intensity and
long charging time.
Additionally, our experience on this topic is the development of
mathematical models based on energy balances in steady state
[43,54e56]and the modeling of solar chimneys using computa-
tional fluid dynamics [15,24,53,57e59]. In our studies to date, we
have not published results that consider phase change materials in
solar chimneys. In our studies to date, we have not published re-
sults that consider phase change materials in solar chimneys.
A critical analysis of the literature shows that there are few
calculation tools based on transient state for the dimensioning of
solar chimneys with GEBmodels. To fill this gap, this paper de-
scribes the assumptions and mathematical model (GEB) that can be
used to develop and implement a solar chimney model. Therefore,
we present an overview about the different mathematical models
for the simulation of a solar chimney in steady state available in the
literature, as well as the versatility (advantages and disadvantages)
of each model. Finally, a second objective is to present the exten-
sion of those models for the simulation of the transient state of a
solar chimney. In this last point, we propose a new mathematical
model of transient state for a double-channel solar chimney, which
incorporated a phase change material (PCM) into the absorber, this
model has not been published by the authors [15,24,43,53e59]and
it is new for the scientific community.
2. Physical and mathematical models
2.1. Physical models
A typical solar chimney (SC) mainly consists of two vertical
heated walls (black wall and glass cover), one opening at the bot-
tom, and another opening at the top. This configuration forms an
asymmetrically heated channel (Fig. 2). One of the walls is semi-
transparent (glass cover) to allow sunlight to go through and heat
the channel. The air in the chimney is heated up by the incident
solar energy, and then the air flows upwards because of the stack
effect. The space from which the solar chimney draws air can be
different from one to which the solar chimney discharges the air.
For example, a solar chimney can be used to draw air from the room
and discharge it to the outside in an enhanced natural ventilation
design.
The operation of the solar chimney is due to the different
mechanisms of heat transfer. The glass cover receives solar radia-
dif dif
tion (G ¼ Gsolar ¼ Gsolar þ Gdir dir
solar ), where Gsolar and Gsolar are the
diffuse and direct solar radiation, respectively. The glass pane re-
ref
flects (qg ¼ r*g G) and absorbs (qabs
g ¼ a*g G) both diffuse and direct
solar radiation; but one part of the direct solar radiation and diffuse
is transmitted through the glazing (qtra *
g ¼ tg G). One part of the
transmitted energy is absorbed by the black wall (qabs * *
w ¼ aw tg G),

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Table 1
Characteristics of the studies that consider the solar chimney with transient global energy balance.
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Fig. 2. Physical model: conjugate heat transfer phenomena of a typical solar chimney.

and therefore such energy is transferred to the adjacent air causing which for the opaque elements, the node to realize the balance is
the stack effect. The other part of the transmitted energy is re- located on the surface of each element that makes up the chimney.
flected into the channel, where radiativeheat flows are also present For the opaque elements, the respective node is located in the
due to the temperature difference between the surfaces of the surface of each element that forms the chimney. This model was
channel; therefore, as a product of the interaction between the used by Hirunlabhet al. [81]and Arceet al. [56]. In general, some
radiativeflows within the channel, there is an internal radiati- authors have considered in both the interior and the exterior of the
veexchange (qrad rad
w
g , qg
w ). Meanwhile the glass dissipates energy by
glass cover to carry out the energy balance [77,82]. However,
convection and radiation to the outdoor environment. Due to the because the temperature difference in the glass is insignificant, in
temperature difference between the surfaces of the chimney and this work we only consider one node for the energy balance. On the
the air, part of the energy absorbed by the plate and the glass cover other hand, Mathuret al. [83]considered the energy balance in the
is transferred to the air contained in the chimney (qconv , qconv ). This interior surface of the glass cover aiming to consider conduction
w
f g
f
through the glass cover using a conductive heat transfer coefficient.
heating causes the air to increase its internal energy which in-
In addition, some authors have simulated the solar chimney for a
creases the buoyancy force resulting in a suction or chimney effect
solar roof, in which they consider the effect of the inclination on the
which moves the air outwards.
different models [61,63,78,84e88]. Other authors have modeled
Fig. 3presents four of the most common models for a solar
the chimney with a double air channel to take advantage of solar
chimney. Fig. 3ashows the Model-I, which isa glass cover and a wall
radiation during the day and with that increase the mass flow rate
or absorber plate (stainless steel, pre-laminated polyurethane, etc.).
[54].
This model has three nodes to carry out the energy balance and
The model proposed by Arceet al. [54], considered here as
particularly the energy balance of the absorber plate is carried out
Model-V, consists of two glass covers and a thin absorber plate in
for the node collocated at the surface in contact with the fluid. The
between, such that glazing is oriented toward the East and the
other nodes are placed one in the center of the glass cover and the
other one toward the West, in such way that this orientation in-
other in the center of the channel. This model was used by
creases the time of solar radiation over the solar chimney. This
Refs. [60e74]. Unlike Model-I, in Model-II (Fig. 3b) four nodes are
configuration has shown the increase of the mass flow due to the
established to carry out the energy balance. This model considers a
increase of the effective area collection during the day. The results
node on the inner surface (surface in contact with the fluid) and
have shown that the efficiency increases from 11 to 28% and the
outer surface (surface in contact with the room) of the absorber
mass flow rate increases from 0.01 to 0.03 kg/s when solar radiation
plate for the energy balance. This model was used by Refs. [75e77].
ranges from 60 to 500 W/m2. Fig. 4shows the heat transfer phe-
As in Model-I, Model-III (Fig. 3c) considers three nodes to carry out
nomena in detail for the Model-V.
the energy balance, considering that the node used for the energy
balance in the absorber plate is located in the center of the wall.
This model was used by Refs. [78e80]. The Model-IV (Fig. 3d) has a 2.2. Steady state mathematical models
glass cover, a metallic plate, a wall of insulation material (poly-
styrene, etc.) or an opaque wall (plywood or brick or stone, etc.). In general, the assumptions for the development of mathe-
This model considers five nodes to carry out the energy balance; in matical models for each of the physical models presented in the
previous subsection are:
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Fig. 3. Physical models of solar chimneys of different publications: (a) Model-I [60e74], (b) Model-II [75e77], (c) Model-III [78e80]and (d) Model-IV [56,81].

1. Steady-state conditions are assumed to exist in the entire
system,
2. One-dimensional heat transfer is assumed for all energy
transfer processes through the glass cover and also between
the absorber wall and air channel,
3. There is a negligible temperature drop through the glass
cover,
4. Absorber wall and glass cover are always parallel,
5. Temperatures at different points on the absorber wall and
glass cover are considered to be equal along the width, 6.

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Fig. 4. (Left) representation of heat transfer phenomena for model-V and (right) position of the points for the temperature.

Airflow in the channel is considered to be laminar or



turbulent,
hconv rad conv rad conv
f
g þ hmp1
g þ hg
amb þ hg
sky Tg
hf
g Tf
7. The air present in the flow channel is considered to act as


non-radiation absorbing fluid,
hrad
mp1
g Tmp1
8. The air temperature varies only along the airflow direction,
*
9. Due to very low order of flow velocity, frictional losses were ¼ hconv rad
g
amb Tamb þ hg
sky Tsky þ ag Gsolar (1)
neglected,
10. The glass cover is opaque for infrared radiation, wherethe solar radiation heat flux absorbed by the glass cover
11. The air is treated as a perfect gas with the density linearly qabs *
g is given by ag Gsolar .
dependent on the temperature over the working tempera-
Similarly, the energy balance of the air flowing through the solar
ture range,
chimney channel (air flow between the glass cover and the
12. The temperature of the air is uniform at any cross-section of
absorber wall) could be expressed mathematically as (Fig. 5):
the air channel, but may vary along the flow direction,
13. The sky could be considered as a blackbody for long wave-
 
length radiation at an equivalent sky temperature, 14. Air hconv
mp1
f Tmp1
Tf Amp1 þ m cp;in Tf ;in
enters the solar chimney at room temperature,
 
15. Material properties are independent of the temperature, and ¼ hconv
f
g Tf
Tg Ag þ m cp;out Tf ;out (2)
16. All thermo physical properties are evaluated at an average
temperature. where it is considered that for a short length of the glass/absorber
wall, the useful heat gain by the air can be calculated through the

Considering the above assumptions, energy balance equations m cp; f ðTf ; out
Tf ; in Þ
following equation: (the thermosiphoneffect is
for each component of the solar chimney can be written as sug- Ag
gested by the literature. included here) and cp; f zcp; out zcp; in , and that the temperature
of the glass cover, Tg , and the absorber plate, Tmp1 , to be constant
over the entire areas of the glass sheet and the absorber wall,
2.3. Mathematical model - I respectively. Furthermore, the average air temperature is consid-
ered as Tf ¼ G Tf ; out þ ð1
GÞTf ; in , where Gis the mean tempera-
For the global energy balance, the glass cover receives energy in ture weighting factor. Hirunlabhet al. in Ref. [81]assumed a value of
the form of solar radiation and radiation from the absorber pla- 0.75, while Ongand Chow in Ref. [89]suggested a value of 0.74.
te,moreover the glass cover loses energy by natural convection to Bansalet al. in Ref. [62]used this last value in their modeling. Also,
air in the solar chimney and overall heat loss from glass to ambient. Gtakes the value of 0.76 in the study of Mathuret al. [83,84].
If mathematical terms are grouped, then the equation for the en- Furthermore, as assumed earlier, Tf ; in is identified to be equal to the
ergy transfer through the glazing can be written as follows: room temperature, Troom . Therefore, the global energy balance
694
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Fig. 5. Heat balance on element along flow direction.

equation for air flow in the solar chimney is: temperature for the wall, one for the surface that is in contact with



 the air (Tmp1 ) and the other for the surface in contact with the room

hconv
f
g Tg þ hconv conv conv
mp1
f þ hf
g þ M Tf
hmp1
f Tmp1 (Tw2 ). Unlike the previous model, which has three unknowns:Tg ,Tf y
Tmp1 , the mathematical model - II has four unknowns: Tg , Tf ,
¼ M Troom (3)
Tmp1 and Tw2 ; thus, the mathematical model - I must be modified. To

mc
obtain the mathematical model - II, the equations (1) and (3)remain
where: M ¼ G Ap;g f and Amp1 ¼ Ag ¼ W Li . without changes and equation (4)is modified to carry out the en-
Analogously to the energy balances for the glass cover and the ergy balance as (at the surface in contact with air):
air channel, the global energy balance for the absorber wall can be  
written as:


 lmp

hrad conv conv rad
mp1
g Tg
hmp1
f Tf þ hmp1
f þ hmp1
g þ Tmp1



 dmp

hrad conv conv rad wall  
mp1
g Tg
hmp1
f Tf þ hmp1
f þ hmp1
g þ U loss Tmp1 lmp

Tw2
¼ U wall * * dmp
loss Troom þ amp1 tg Gsolar
(4) ¼ a*mp1 t*g Gsolar
(5)
where the heat flux absorbed by the wall qabs
mp1 is given as
wherethe heat flux through of the wall qcond
mp1
w2 is given by the
a*mp1 t*g Gsolar , and U wall
loss is the overall heat transfer coefficient be-
Fourier's Law, and dmp andlmp is the thickness and thermal con-
tween the vertical wall and the room represented by: U wall
loss ¼ ductivity of the absorber metallic plate, respectively.
1 .
conv
ð1=hint Þþðdmp =lmp Þ To obtain the equation for temperatureTw2 , an energy balance is
carried out on the surface of the wall in contact with the room, that
is:
2.4. Mathematical model - II
   

lmp lmp
The previous mathematical model considers heat conduction

Tmp1 þ hconv rad
int þ hint þ Tw2 ¼ hconv rad
int þ hint Troom
dmp dmp
(qcond
mp1
w2 ) through the absorber wall by using an electric analogy (6)
and it does not consider the radiativelosses of the plate (qrad
w2
room ).
Therefore, to consider such effects one have to obtain two values of wherehconv rad
int and hint are the convective and radiativeheat transfer

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coefficients, respectively, between the vertical wall and the room.    


lw lw

Tw1 þ hconv þ hrad
þ T ¼ hconv rad
int þ hint Troom
dw int int
dw w2
2.5. Mathematical model - III (10)

The mathematical model eIII considers the absorber wall as a

thin plate and therefore, the heat conduction is neglected. This
model has three unknowns: Tg , Tf and Tmp , and to obtain the 2.7. Mathematical model - V
equations of the model one have to modify the mathematical
model - I. To obtain model - III, the equations (1) and (3)remain The mathematical model eV has an additional glass cover in
without changes, and the subscript “mp1”is substituted by “mp”and such a way that the solar chimney forms two air channels (double
the new energy balance in the center of the absorber plate equation air channel). This additional glass increases the area for collecting
(4)is modified by considering the convective (qconv
w2
room ) and radi- solar energy during the day and as consequence, it increases the
ativelosses (qrad
w2
room ) towards the room. Then the modified equa-
mass flow rate of the chimney. This model is an extension of model
tion for the absorber wall is: eIII and it has five unknowns: Tg1 , Tf 1 , Tw2 , Tf 2 and Tg2 . In Fig. 4, we



labeled as channel-1 and channel-2 the right side and left side,

hrad conv conv rad conv respectively. To obtain the mathematical model eV one considers
mp
g Tg
hmp
f Tf þ hmp
f þ hmp
g þ hint
 that equations (1) and (3)remain without changes, where the
þ hrad
int Tmp subscript symbol “mp1”will be replaced by “mp”and when per-

 forming the new energy balance for the center of the absorber
¼ hconv rad
int þ hint Troom þ a*mp t*g Gsolar (7) plate, the equation (4)is modified to consider the convective
(qconv
mp
f 2
) and radiative(qrad
mp
g2 ) losses toward the channel-2 of the
solar chimney. Additionally, an energy balance for the air volume in
the channel-2 is required to obtain an algebraic equation for Tf 2.
2.6. Mathematical model - IV Finally, to complete the mathematical model eV another energy
balance for the node of the glass cover-2 is required to obtain an
The mathematical model - IV is very similar to the mathematical algebraic equation for Tg2. For the heat flow, solar radiation, etc.,
model - II, but the former has an additional opaque element and it that interact with the channel-1 we added to their corresponding
considers heat conduction through both an absorber metal plate symbols the label “1“, in the same way for the channel-2, we added
(qcond cond the label “2“. Therefore, for the glass cover-1, the equation (1)is
mp1
w1 ) and a layer of insulation material (qw1
w2 ). This model
rewritten as:
has five unknowns: Tg , Tf , Tmp1 , Tw1 y Tw2. To obtain the mathe-
matical model - IV, one considers that equations (1) and (3)remain



hconv rad conv rad conv
f 1
g1 þ hmp
g1 þ hg1
amb þ hg1
sky Tg1
hf 1
g1 Tf 1
without changes and equation (4)is modified as follows (at the


surface in contact with air):
hradmp
g1 Tmp


  
lmp ¼ hconv rad *

hrad g1
amb Tamb þ hg1
sky Tsky þ ag1 Gsolar1
conv conv rad
mp1
g Tg
hmp1
f Tf þ hmp1
f þ hmp1
g þ Tmp1
dmp
  (11)
lmp

Tw1 Similarly, for the control volume of the air in the channel-1, the
dmp
equation (3)is rewritten as:
¼ a*mp1 t*g Gsolar




(8)
hconv conv conv conv
f 1
g1 Tg1 þ hmp
f 1 þ hf 1
g1 þ M1 Tf 1
hmp
f 1 Tmp

To obtain the equation for temperatureTw1 , an energy balance is ¼ M1 Troom

carried out on the surface of the wall in contact with the metallic
(12)
plate, that is:
      For the energy balance of the metal plate set at the center of the
lmp lmp lw lw chimney, we considered that: (a) the wall absorbs the solar energy

Tmp1 þ þ Tw1
T ¼0 (9)
dmp dmp dw dw w2 transmitted through the glass-1 (t*g1 Gsolar1 ) and the glass-2
(t*g2 Gsolar2 ) and (b) the walls has both convective (qconv
mp
f 1
, qconv
mp
f 2
)
wheredw and lw are the thickness and thermal conductivity of the
wall or insulating material, respectively. The equation for temper- and radiative(qrad rad
mp
g1 , qmp
g2 ) losses towards the channel-1 and the
atureTw2 is obtained of the energy balance on the surface of the wall channel-2. Therefore, the resulting equation from the energy bal-
in contact with the room, this is: ance can be expressed as:







hrad conv conv rad conv rad conv rad
mp
g1 Tg1
hmp
f 1 Tf 1 þ hmp
f 1 þ hmp
g1 þ hmp
f 2 þ hmp
g2 Tmp
hmp
f 2 Tf 2
hmp
g2 Tg2 ¼
(13)
a*mp t*g1 Gsolar1 þ a*mp t*g2 Gsolar2
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Fig. 6. Physical model of the absorber wall: (a) Model eI, (b) Model - II, (c) Model - III.

arrangements for the node of the absorber wall is for taking into
Similarly, for the control volume of the fluid in channel-2, an account the thickness of the wall (dmp ) to integrate the effect of heat
equation analogous to equation (12)is obtained: conduction of the wall. Whereas the node for Tmp of the model eIII



 is placed in the center of the absorber wall and the thickness of the

hconv conv conv conv
mp
f 2 Tmp þ hmp
f 2 þ hf 2
g2 þ M2 Tf 2
hf 2
g2 Tg2 walls is not possible to be considered in a steady state model, and
precisely from here it comes the name of thin plate model (where
¼ M2 Troom
the heat conduction is negligible). Some authors have arranged
(14) each of these models to consider the heat conduction of the wall
[25,30]. However, such arrangements can be suitable for the


where: M2 ¼
m cp; f 2
Amp ¼ Ag ¼ W Li with the variables of mathematical models for steady state but it makes it difficult when
G Ag and
trying to extend these models for a transient state.
channel-2.
In general to extend a model with time effects, for example for
Finally, the energy balance for the glass cover-2, we obtained an
the term of energy storage in the absorber wall must be expressed
equation analogous to equation (11)as:
as [45,47,48,90]:





hrad conv conv rad conv
mp
g2 Tmp
hf 2
g2 Tf 2 þ hf 2
g2 þ hmp
g2 þ hg2
amb  
 v r CP Tmp
þ hrad V (16)
g2
sky Tg2 v t
*
¼ hconv rad
g2
amb Tamb þ hg2
sky Tsky þ ag2 Gsolar2 whereVis the control volume for the energy balance of the node
(15) and it can be written as V ¼ Amp *d ¼ ðW*Li Þ*d. The symbols
Amp and dare the cross sectional area and the thickness of the con-
trol volume, respectively. The cross sectional area for the three
models is the same. However, the thickness of the control volume
2.8. Transient mathematical models dfor model eI and model eII is equal to zero, whereas the corre-
sponding to the model eIII is equal to the thickness of the absorber
To establish the mathematical models in transient state corre- wall, d ¼ dmp . With this assumption, the models eI, II and IV have a
sponding to the extension of the models presented above, we clear disadvantage compared to the model eIII and model eV to
present Fig. 6, which shows the absorber wall of the first three solar analyze transient states.
chimney models. To complement this disadvantage of the thin plate model, for
To carry out the energy balance, a node is placed on the inner example for the model eII and model eIV authors as Bouchairand
surface of the absorber wall for the model eI (Tmp1 ), and on the Fitzgerald [31], and Bouchair[34]proposed for each node of the
outer (Tw2 ) and interior (Tmp1 ) surfaces for the model eII. These wall, to use a thickness “d”equal to the half of the absorber wall's

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thickness, this is d ¼ dmp =2. Other authors as Zrikemand Bilgen[30], Similarly, the energy balance for the control volume of the air in
and Martí-Herreroand Heras-Celemin[25]solved the differential the channel (Fig. 5) is expressed as:
equation for unidirectional heat conduction of an absorber wall
with their respective boundary conditions, where the differential
  
rf cp; f
model of heat conduction is coupled to the global energy balance
hconv
f
g Tg þ d þ hconv
þ hconv
f
g þ M Tf
model by using the other nodes of the system (fluid, glass, etc.). Dt f mp
f


Another way to arrange the nodes of the absorber wall was used by
hconv
mp
f Tmp
Khedariet al. [35]in which the thickness of the absorber wall
“dmp ”is divided in “n”number of layers with the same thickness rf cp; f
¼ M Troom þ df T old (18)
“d ¼ dx”and a node is placed in each layer to carry out an energy Dt f

balance in such a way that “n”equations are formed from the en-
ergy balances. Recently, Liu and Li [47]used the approach proposed
by Khedariet al. [35]to analyze a phase exchange material on the
absorber wall.
With the previous discussion, it is clear that the mathematical
model - III and model- V (thin plate model) have an advantage over
the remaining models and naturally, without having to make
different arrangements of nodes in the corresponding wall, they
wheredf is the thickness of the air channel of the solar chimney and
T old
f is the air temperature in the previous time (t) and Tf is the air

mc
temperature in the new time (t þ Dt). M ¼ G Ap;g f andAf ¼ Amp ¼
Ag ¼ W Li andGis the mean temperature weighting factor.
Finally, to obtain the missing equation and close the transient
model, an energy balance for the absorber wall is required and this
is expressed as:


  
rmp cp; mp

hrad T g
h conv
T þ d mp þ hconv
þ hrad
þ hconv
þ hrad
Tmp ¼
mp
g mp
f f
Dt mp
f mp
g int int
(19)

 rmp cp; mp
hconv rad
int þ hint Troom þ a*mp t*g Gsolar þ dmp T old
Dt mp

can be extended to become transient state models. In the following

section, we present the mathematical models of transient state for
the model - III and the model - V.
2.9. Mathematical model eIII (transient)
Recalling that the mathematical model eIII has three un-
knowns: Tg , Tf and Tmp , which are functions of the time, the cor-
responding mathematical model in steady state will be modified to
consider the effects of the time. The energy balance for the glass
cover is expressed as:
where T old
mp is temperature of the absorber wall in the previous time
(t) and Tmp is the temperature of the absorber wall in the new time
(t þ D t).
2.10. Mathematical model eV (transient)
The mathematical model eV (transient) of double air channel
solar chimney has five unknowns Tg1 , Tf 1 , Tmp , Tf 2 and Tg2 . To obtain
this model one considers that equations (17) and (18)remain
without changes and the symbols for the equations will have the

 


rg cp; g
dg þ hconv rad conv rad
f
g þ hmp
g þ hg
amb þ hg
sky Tg
hf
g
conv
Tf
hrad
mp
g Tmp ¼
Dt
(17)
*
rg cp; g
hconv rad
g
amb Tamb þ hg
sky Tsky þ ag Gsolar þ dg T old
Dt g

subscript “1”and “2”depending on the case of the channel-1 or

where dg is the thickness of the glass cover and for the discrete
approximation of the temporal term a forward difference approx-
imation is used [91]. Furthermore, the thermophysicalproperties
are considered independent of the time in the corresponding
control volume. T old
g representsthe value of glass temperature in the
previous time (t) and Tg is the glass temperature in the new time (t þ
Dt).
When comparing equations (17) and (1), one observes that the
difference between these equations is that the former has two
r c
additional terms, the first ( g Dtp; g dg Tg ) and the last term
r c
( g Dtp; g dg T old
g ). These additional terms represent the effects of time
in the equation.
channel-2. Moreover, when developing the energy balance for the
absorber wall, the equation (19)is modified to consider convective
(qconv
mp
f 2
) and radiative(qrad
mp
g2 ) losses towards the channel-2 of the
chimney. Additionally, to obtain an algebraic equation forTf 2, an
energy balance for a volume of fluid in the channel-2 of the
chimney is required. Finally, to complete the mathematical model
eV (transient) an energy balance is carry out for the node of glass
e2 to obtain an algebraic equation forTg2.
For the glass e1, equation (17)is expressed as:
698
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Fig. 7. Physical model of (left) solar chimneys with PCMand (right) absorber wall with PCM.


 

rg1 cp; g1
dg1 þ hconv rad conv rad conv rad
f 1
g1 þ hmp
g1 þ hg1
amb þ hg1
sky Tg1
hf 1
g1 Tf 1
hmp
g1 Tmp ¼
Dt
(20)
*
rg1 cp; g1
hconv rad
g1
amb Tamb þ hg1
sky Tsky þ ag1 Gsolar1 þ dg1 T old
Dt g1

Similarly, for the control volume of the fluid in the channel e1,
equation (18)is rewritten as: Similarly for a control volume of the fluid in channel-2, an
equation analogous to equation (21)is obtained, this is:

  
rf 1 cp; f 1

hconv T þ d þ hconv
þ hconv
þ M1 Tf 1
f 1
g1 g1
Dt f1 mp
f 1 f 1
g1


  
rf 2 cp; f 2

hconv
mp
f 1 Tmp
hconv Tmp þ d þ hconv
þ hconv
þ M Tf 2
mp
f 2
Dt f2 mp
f 2 f 2
g2 2
rf 1 cp; f 1

¼ M1 Troom þ df 1 T old
hconv
Dt f1 f 2
g2 Tg2
(21) rf 2 cp; f 2
¼ M2 Troom þ df 2 T old
In a similar way as the model eV for steady state, in the absorber Dt f2

wall it is considered for the energy balance that: (a) the wall ab- (23)
sorbs the solar energy transmitted through the glass-1 (t*g1 Gsolar1 ) Finally, from the energy balance for glass-2 the equation (20)is
and the glass e2 (t*g2 Gsolar2 ) and (b) the wall has convective (qconv
mp
f 1
, obtained:

qconv
mp
f 2
) and radiative(qrad rad
mp
g1 , qmp
g2 ) losses towards the channel-1
and channel-2. Therefore, the resulting equation for the energy
balances is expressed as:


  


rmp cp; mp

hrad conv
mp
g1 Tg1
hmp
f 1 Tf 1 þ dmp þ hconv rad conv rad conv rad
mp
f 1 þ hmp
g1 þ hmp
f 2 þ hmp
g2 Tmp
hmp
f 2 Tf 2
hmp
g2 Tg2 ¼
Dt
r cp; mp
a*mp t*g1 Gsolar1 þ a*mp t*g2 Gsolar2 þ mp dmp T old
Dt mp

(22)

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rg2 cp; g2

hrad conv
mp
g2 Tmp
hf 2
g2 Tf 2 þ dg2 þ hconv rad conv rad
f 2
g2 þ hmp
g2 þ hg2
amb þ hg2
sky Tg2 ¼
Dt
(24)
*
rg2 cp; g2
hconv rad
g2
amb Tamb þ hg2
sky Tsky þ ag2 Gsolar2 þ dg2 T old
Dt g2

3. Proposal of a new solar chimney model
3.1. Transient mathematical models with PCM
The models previously presented based in the concept of thin
plate are unable to consider the storage capacity, for example a
massive wall with a high thermal inertia or a wall with a phase
change material (PCM). The thin plate models with the arrange-
ments previously commented can be modified so that one can
consider the storage capacity of a solar chimney. Therefore, the thin
plate models are useful for modeling solar chimneys for diurnal use.
However, for chimneys of nocturnal use which have a high thermal
inertia one requires to have models for these types of chimneys,
either with an arrangement of the nodes with their respective
energy balances or with a new proposal of models. The last possi-
bility is discussed in this section, where we propose two configu-
rations of solar chimneys with thermal storage using phase change
(transient),it considers that the absorber wall contains a PCM. The
mathematical part for the PCMis based on the model proposed by
Liu and Li [47]. Due to this, to contain the phase change material in
the absorber plate, the “SoChi-O model”considers a cover in contact
with the air inside the channel and another cover in contact with
the air of the room (to form the container containing the PCM).
Therefore, for the symbols for the temperatures of these covers we
will use the subscript “1”and “2”, respectively. The container of
PCMwith a thickness “dpcm ”is divided into “n”numbers of layers
with the same thickness “dx”and a node is located at the center of
each layer to carry out an energy balance. In this way one obtains
“i ¼ 1; 2 ::: n”algebraic equations from the energy balance for the
temperature of the PCM.
Therefore, to formulate the model “SoChi-O model”an energy
balance for the glass cover is required from which one gets equation
(17). The subscript“1”has been added to the metallic cover.

 


rg cp; g
dg þ hconv rad conv rad
f
g þ hmp1
g þ hg
amb þ hg
sky Tg
hf
g
conv
Tf
hrad
mp1
g Tmp1 ¼
Dt
(25)
*
rg cp; g
hg
amb Tamb þ hrad
conv
g
sky Tsky þ ag Gsolar þ dg T old
Dt g

materials (PCM). The proposals are based on the experience of the

authors on this topic and some information from the literature.
The available works about solar chimney with PCMare Kaneko Similarly, the global energy balance equation for air flow in the
et al. [38], Sharma et al. [39], Li and Liu [45], Liu and Li [47], Lu et al. solar chimney (eq. (18)):
[49], and Li et al. [50]. All authors have divided the thickness of the

  
wall “dmp ”in “n”numbers of layers with the same thickness “d ¼ rf cp; f

hconv
f
g Tg þ d þ hconv
þ hconv
f
g þ M Tf
dx”and they have located one node at the center of each layer to Dt f mp1
f
carry out the energy balance in such a way that “n”algebraic

equations are formed for the absorber wall with PCM.
hconv
mp1
f Tmp1
rf cp; f
¼ M Troom þ df T old (26)
3.2. SoChi-O model: mathematical model for a solar chimney with Dt f

one channel using a PCM
This mathematical model (SoChi-O model) of a solar chimney
with a single air channel and absorber plate with a PCM(Fig. 7) has
4 unknowns (Tg , Tf , Tmp1 and Tmp2 ) plus “i ¼ 1; 2 ::: n”unknowns for
the values of temperature of the phase change material (Tpcm; i ). The
SoChi-O modelis an extension of the mathematical model eIII
The metallic absorber plate is considered as a thin metal with
high thermal conductivity. Hence, thermal gradients across the
thickness of the absorber material are negligible. Consequently, a
one-dimensional analysis is employed and therefore the energy
balance in the absorber wall is:


  

rmp1 cp; mp1

hrad Tg
hconv
T þ d þ hconv
þ hrad
þ hcond cond
mp1
pcm; 1 Tmp1
hmp1
pcm; 1 Tpcm; 1 ¼
mp1
g mp1
f f
Dt mp1 mp1
f mp1
g
(27)
r cp; mp1
a*mp1 t*g Gsolar þ mp1 dmp1 T old
Dt mp1
700
pez et al. / Energy 170 (2019) 683e708
R. Vargas-Lo

Fig. 8. Physical model of solar chimneys with two channel of air flow and absorber wall with PCM.

where Tpcm;1 is the temperature of the first layer of the phase change 

 rpcm; i cp; pcm; i
material in contact with the absorber wall. On the other hand, the

hcond
pcm; ði
1Þ
pcm; i T þ dx
PCMis encapsulated by a metallic container, and the absorber plate
pcm; i
1
Dt

serves as heat exchanger, good thermal contact between the
PCMand the container is assumed. As shown in Fig. 7, the þ hcond cond
pcm; ði
1Þ
pcm; i þ hpcm; i
pcm; ðiþ1Þ Tpcm; i
PCMcontainer is divided in “n”cells along the thickness “dpcm “. In

terms of the definition of the effective heat capacity, the one
hcond
pcm; i
pcm; ðiþ1Þ Tpcm; iþ1
dimensional energy equation of the PCMfor an internal node “i”can rpcm; i cp; pcm; i
be expressed and obtained the algebraic equation for each cell of ¼ dx T old
pcm; i i ¼ 2; 3; :::n
1 (29)
Dt
PCMas [47]:

 
rpcm; n cp; pcm; n

hcond
pcm; ðn
1Þ
pcm; n Tpcm; n
1 þ dx

 
rpcm; 1 cp; pcm; 1 Dt


hcond T þ dx þ hcond
mp1
pcm; 1 mp1
Dt mp1
pcm; 1
þ hcond cond
pcm; ðn
1Þ
pcm; n þ hpcm; n
mp2 Tpcm; n




þ hcond cond
pcm; 1
pcm; 2 Tpcm; 1
hpcm; 1
pcm; 2 Tpcm; 2
hcond
pcm; n
mp2 Tmp2
rpcm; 1 cp; pcm; 1 rpcm; n cp; pcm; n
¼ dx T old
pcm; 1 i ¼ 1 ¼ dx T old
Dt pcm; n i ¼ n (30)
Dt
(28)
To complete the “SoChi-O model”an energy balance for the wall
that is in contact with the room, this is:

  
rmp2 cp; mp2

hcond Tpcm; n þ d þ hcond
þ hconv
þ hrad
Tmp2 ¼
pcm; n
mp2
Dt mp2 pcm; n
mp2 int int
(31)

 rmp2 cp; mp2
hconv rad
int þ hint Troom þ dmp2 T old
Dt mp2

pez et al. / Energy 170 (2019) 683e708
R. Vargas-Lo 701

Finally, the above eqs. (25)-(31)for the “SoChi-O model”may be 2 ::: n”unknowns for the values of temperature of the PCM(Tpcm; i ).
written in a matrix form: This model is an extension of the mathematical model eV (tran-

2 3

6 rg cp;g d þ hconv þ hrad 7
6 Dt g f
g mp1
g 7
6 7
6
hrad 0 0 0 7
6  mp1
g 7
6 7
6 þ hconv rad
g
amb þ hg
sky
7
6 7
6 7
6  7
6
6 rf cp;f 7
7
6 d þ hconv 7
6 Dt f mp1
f
7
6
hconv 0 0 0 7
6 f
g  7
6 7
6 þ hconv
f
g þ M
7
6 7
6 7
6 7
6 0 equation ð29Þ 7
6 7
6 7
6 0 equation ð30Þ 7
6 7
6 7
6 0 equation ð31Þ 7
6 7
6 7
6 0 equation ð32Þ 7
6 7
6  7
6
6
rmp2 cp;mp2 7
7
6 dmp2 7
6 D t 7
6 0 0 0 0 cond

hpcm;n
mp2 7
6 7
6 rad 7
4 þ hcond conv
pcm;n
mp2 þ hint þ hint 5

2 3 sient) and considers that the absorber plate contains a PCM.

conv rad *
rg cp; g old To obtain the SoChi-T modelit is considered that equations (25)-
6 hg
amb Tamb þ hg
sky Tsky þ ag Gsolar þ Dt dg T g 7 (30)remain without changes with exception that the symbols of the
6 7
2 3 6 rf cp; f 7 equations will use the subscript “1”and “2”depending on the case of
Tg 6 M Troom þ old 7
6 df T f 7
6 Tf 7 6 D t 7 channel-1 or channel-2. To carry out the energy balance in the
6 7 6 7
6 Tmp1 7 6 rmp1 cp; mp1 7 absorber plate, equation (31)is modified to consider the convective
6 7¼6 a*
t *
G þ d T old 7
6  7 6 mp1 g solar
D t mp1 mp1 7 (qconv ) and radiative(qrad
mp2
g2 ) losses to the channel-2 of the solar
6 7 6 7 mp2
f 2
4  5 6  7
6 7 chimney. Additionally, an energy balance is required for the control
Tmp2 6 7
6  7 volume of the channel-2 to have an equation for Tf 2. Finally to
6 7
4
 r c 5 complete the SoChi-T modelan energy balance is required for the
conv rad mp2 p; mp2 old
hint þ hint Troom þ dmp2 T mp2 node of the glass cover-2 to obtain an equation for Tg2.
Dt
(32) Therefore for glass-1, the control volume of channel-1 and the
absorber metallic plate-1 are written as:


 

rg1 cp; g1
dg1 þ hconv rad conv rad conv rad
f 1
g1 þ hmp1
g1 þ hg1
amb þ hg1
sky Tg1
hf 1
g1 Tf 1
hmp1
g1 Tmp1 ¼
Dt
(33)
*
rg1 cp; g1
hg1
amb Tamb þ hrad
conv
g1
sky Tsky þ ag1 Gsolar1 þ dg1 T old
Dt g1

3.3. SoChi-T model: mathematical model for a solar chimney with

two channelusing a PCM

In this second proposal, the model (SoChi-T model) of solar

chimney with two air channels and absorber plate with PCM(Fig. 8)
has five unknowns (Tg1 , Tf , Tmp1 , Tmp2 and Tg2 ) plus “i ¼ 1;
702
pez et al. / Energy 170 (2019) 683e708
R. Vargas-Lo


  

rmp1 cp; mp1

hrad conv
mp1
g1 Tg1
hmp1
f 1 Tf 1 þ dmp1 þ hconv rad cond cond
mp1
f 1 þ hmp1
g1 þ hmp1
pcm; 1 Tmp1
hmp1
pcm; 1 Tpcm; 1 ¼
Dt
(35)
r cp; mp1
a*mp1 t*g1 Gsolar1 þ mp1 dmp1 T old
Dt mp1

  
 
rf 1 cp; f 1 rf 2 cp; f 2

hconv
f 1
g1 Tg1 þ df 1 þ hconv conv
mp1
f 1 þ hf 1
g1 þ M1 Tf 1
hconv
mp2
f 2 Tmp2 þ df 2 þ hconv conv
mp2
f 2 þ hf 2
g2
Dt Dt

 

conv

hmp1
f 1 Tmp1 þ M2 Tf 2
hconv
f 2
g2 Tg2
rf 1 cp; f 1
¼ M1 Troom þ df 1 T old rf 2 cp; f 2
Dt f1
¼ M2 Troom þ df 2 T old (37)
Dt f2
(34)
Finally, the energy balance for the glass cover-2 is obtained
analogously to equation (24)with the respective subscript:
The corresponding equations for each layer of PCMof the solar


  
rg2 cp; g2

hrad T
hconv
T þ d þ hconv
þ hrad
þ hconv
þ h rad
g2
sky Tg2 ¼
mp2
g2 mp2 f 2
g2 f2
Dt g2 f 2
g2 mp2
g2 g2
amb
(38)
*
rg2 cp;g2
hconv rad
g2
amb Tamb þ hg2
sky Tsky þ ag2 Gsolar2 þ dg2 T old
Dt g2

chimney are equations (28) - (30), and these remain without

changes (the subscripts are not modified). The above eqs. (33)-(38)form the model “SoChi-T model”.
For the energy balance of the absorber plate in contact with the
channel-2 and with the PCMit is considered that:
3.4. Effective heat capacity method
(a) theplate absorbs the solar energy transmitted through the
glass-2 (t*g2 Gsolar2 ), In the mathematical models “SoChi-T model”and “SoChi-T
(b) theplate has convective (qconv ) and radiative(qrad model”it is necessary to solve the problem of phase change in the
mp2
f 2 mp2
g2 )
losses to the channel-2 and absorber wall. Therefore, it is required to establish one of the
(c) thereis heat conduction from the PCMtowards the plate. existing methods to solve this problem. Here we present the
formulation of one of the most commonly used methods in the
Therefore, the resulting equation is expressed as: literature, which establishes the way to calculate the specific heat
during the phase change. The method presented below is known
as: Effective heat capacity method.

  


rmp2 cp; mp2

hcond Tpcm; n þ dx þ hcond
þ hconv
þ hrad conv rad
mp2
g2 Tmp2
hmp2
f 2 Tf 2
hmp2
g2 Tg2 ¼
pcm; n
mp2
Dt pcm; n
mp2 mp2
f 2
(36)
r cp; mp2
a*mp2 t*g2 Gsolar2 þ mp2 dx T old
Dt mp2

In the effective heat capacity method the latent heat effect is

Analogously to equation (23)with the corresponding subscript,
we have the balance equation for the control volume of the air in
channel-2, that is:
expressed as a finite temperature dependent specific heat which
occurs over a temperature range [92e94]. The effective capacity
method is based on the idea of incorporating the phase change
phenomenon into the heat capacity calculations. This physical
property represents the amount of heat needed for a substance to
increase its temperature. This means that the effective heat

pez et al. / Energy 170 (2019) 683e708
R. Vargas-Lo
capacity cp; eff has to include the latent heat of the phase change.
Therefore, the function of the effective heat capacity increases and
decreases sharply with an apparent peak when the material un-
dergoes the phase change. Then, to calculate congruous and
trustworthy results it is crucial to properly determine the effective
heat capacity [95]. With the effective heat capacity it is possible to
describe the non-isothermal phase change in the PCM. The effective
heat capacity of the material (cp; eff ) is directly proportional to the
stored and released energy during the phase change and the spe-
cific heat. However, it is inversely proportional to the width of the
melting or solidification temperature range [92]. Then, the defini-
tion of the effective heat capacity for each phase change period is
[96e99]:
8
>
> cp;s T < ðTm
DTÞ
>
>
<c
p;s þ cp;l L
cp; eff ¼ cp; pcm ¼ þ ls ðTm
DTÞ  T  ðTm þ DTÞ
>
>
> 2 2DT
>
: cp;l T > ðTm þ DTÞ
where cp; l and cp; s are the specific heats of the liquid and solid
phases and L l s is the latent heat associated with the phase change.
Tm isthe melting point temperature and 2DT ¼ Tl
Ts is the freezing
interval. Ts andTl are defined as the lower and higher limit of the
melting temperature range, respectively. For an isothermal phase
change, DTis zero and hence cp; eff is infinite at the interface. To
avoid this singularity, a small but finite freezing interval is usually
assumed. In other words, when this method is applied to the
analysis of pure materials, in which the phase change occurs at a
specified temperature (i.e. Tl ¼ Ts ), a phase change interval DT(s0)
must be assumed. It has been demonstrated by Morgan et al. [100]
that good results can be obtained for problems involving conduc-
tion provided that the right choice is made for the value of
DT.However, for materials in which the phase change does indeed
occur over a reasonable temperature range this problem does not
Fig. 9. Comparison of temperature distribution obtained by the present study with the
analytical solution of Solomon (1979) and the numerical result of Ariciet al. (2018).
703
arise and the actual physical values of Ts and Tl can then be used
successfully.
Thus finally, the effective specific heat methods solve the phase
change problems essentially as single-domain problems with
temperature-dependent specific heat. The effective specific
methods are preferred over the full enthalpy method because they
do not need modification of a heat conduction program, if it sup-
ports avariable property option [101]. In summary, equation (39)for
the calculation of specific heat is used in equations (28)-(30)for
PCMmodeling. In general, additional considerations for the math-
ematical models: “SoChi-T model”and “SoChi-T model”, which used
a PCM, are:
solid phase
mushy phase (39)
liquid phase
1) thePCMbehaves ideally, i. e.,such phenomena as property
degradation and supercoolingare not accounted for,
2) thePCMis homogeneous and isotropic and
3) heattransfer within the PCMis one edimensional conduction.
3.5. Verification of the effective heat capacity method
The model “Effective heat capacity method”was verified to ensure
that the PCMmodel can reproduce the phenomena. For this com-
parison, the verification process was made with the two-phase
Stefan problem in a slab reported by Solomon, 1979 [102]and
Ariciet al., 2018 [103]. Our numerical results were compared with
the analytical results given in (Solomon, 1979) and the numerical
results of Ariciet al. (2018). The melting process of N-Eicosenepar-
affin wax in a slab with an initial temperature of 21  C was inves-
tigated for that purpose. One side of the slab was kept at a constant
temperature of about 95  C. The temperature variation in the slab,
after 3600sof the melting process using a time step of 1s, was
compared with the analytical and numerical solution reported in
Refs. [102,103], respectively (see Fig. 9).As it can be seen from the
figure, the results are in good agreement qualitatively, and quan-
titatively with a maximum deviation of 0.52  C respect a Solomon
(1979) and 3.84  C with Ariciet al. (2018), which corresponds to less
than 1.3 and 10.5%, respectively (see Table 2).
4. Air flow rate and heat transfer coefficient
4.1. Correlation for the air mass flow rate

The air volume (m ) that crosses the chimney at the outlet
opening for uniform room air temperature according a Bansalet al.
[104]and Andersen [105]is given by:
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi

ffi
u
u2 g L T
Troom
 ; outrf A out t i f
m ¼ Cd qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (40)
Troom
1 þ ðAout =Ain Þ 2
wheregis the gravitational constant (9.81 m/s2), rf ; out is the density
of the air leaving of the chimney, Aout and Ain are outlet and inlet
704
pez et al. / Energy 170 (2019) 683e708
R. Vargas-Lo

Table 2
Comparison results between the present study and the reference solution of Solomon, 1979 [102] and Ariciet al., 2018 [103].

x(m) Present Study Ariciet al.(2018). Solomon (1979) Present study vs [103] Present study vs [102]

0 95.00 95.00 95 0.00 0.00

0.002 86.77 86.60 86.78 0.19 0.01
0.004 78.60 78.21 78.6 0.50 0.00
0.006 70.57 69.84 70.52 1.04 0.06
0.008 62.72 61.51 62.58 1.97 0.23
0.01 55.11 53.22 54.83 3.55 0.51
0.012 47.73 44.95 47.29 6.19 0.94
0.014 40.54 36.70 40.02 10.46 1.30
0.016 36.04 35.32 35.72 2.03 0.88
0.018 34.50 33.96 34.18 1.59 0.94
0.02 33.04 32.65 32.73 1.20 0.95
0.022 31.68 31.39 31.38 0.92 0.95
0.024 30.42 30.20 30.13 0.73 0.97
0.026 29.27 29.09 28.99 0.63 0.98
0.028 28.23 28.07 27.95 0.56 0.99
0.03 27.28 27.13 27.01 0.55 0.99
0.032 26.42 26.29 26.17 0.51 0.97
0.034 25.66 25.54 25.42 0.47 0.94
0.036 24.98 24.87 24.75 0.43 0.92
0.038 24.38 24.28 24.17 0.40 0.86
0.04 23.85 23.77 23.66 0.34 0.80
0.042 23.39 23.32 23.21 0.31 0.78
0.044 22.99 22.93 22.83 0.28 0.72
0.046 22.65 22.60 22.51 0.24 0.64
0.048 22.37 22.32 22.23 0.21 0.61
0.05 22.12 22.08 22 0.19 0.55
0.052 21.92 21.88 21.81 0.18 0.50
0.054 21.75 21.71 21.65 0.19 0.46
0.056 21.61 21.57 21.52 0.20 0.44
0.058 21.50 21.45 21.41 0.25 0.44
0.06 21.42 21.36 21.32 0.28 0.47
0.062 21.36 21.28 21.25 0.36 0.50
0.064 21.31 21.22 21.2 0.43 0.53
0.066 21.29 21.17 21.15 0.55 0.64
0.068 21.29 21.13 21.12 0.76 0.80

*Absolute differences in percentage.

area of the chimney openings, respectively and Cd is the coefficient
of dischange. The coefficient of discharge is defined as the ratio of
the cross-section area at the venaecontractato the actual opening
area. In the literature, different values have been reported for this
last coefficient. Bansalet al. analyzed the effect of Cd in a range of
0.5e0.8 [104]. Hirunlabhet al. used a value of 0.8 for their numerical
results [81]. Ong[60]used a value of agreement and recommended
by Florentzuet al. of 0.6 [106]. Bansalet al. [62], Mathuret al. [83,84]
and Bassiounyand Kourah[63]used a value recommended by
Andersen of Cd ¼ 0:57[105]. Arceet al. reported an experimental
solar chimney discharge coefficient of 0.52 in Ref. [55]. Also, Li and
Liu determined experimentally an average dischangecoefficient of
Cd ¼ 0:47, which was used in their numerical model [107]. Spencer
mentioned that the Cd value is almost constant at 0.61 for Reynolds
number greater than 100, and less than 0.6 for Reynolds number
smaller than 100 [108].
wherethe sky temperature is given by Swinbank[109]:
Tsky ¼ 0:0552 T 1:5
amb (42)
wheresis the Stephan-Boltzmanconstant (5.67  10
8 W/m2K4)
and εg is the surface emissivity of the glass cover. Ong[60],
Bansalet al. [62]and Arceet al. [56]reported a value of εg ¼ 0:90and
Martí-Herreroand Heras-Celeminconsidered for their dynamic
model, εg ¼ 0:80[25].
4.3. Convection heat transfer from vertical glass cover due to wind
The convective heat transfer coefficient (hconv
g
amb ) due to wind is
given by Duffieand Beckmann [110]that only depends on the ve-
locity module of the wind (Vwind ) as:

4.2. Radiation heat transfer coefficient from vertical glass cover to hconv
g
amb ¼ 5:7 þ 3:8 Vwind (43a)
sky
Also, other experimental expression according to ASHRAEis
[111]:
The radiativeheat transfer coefficient (hrad
g
sky ) from the outer
glass surface to the sky may be obtained as: hconv
g
amb ¼ 2:8 þ 3:0 Vwind (43b)



g
sky ¼ s εg T g þ T sky
hrad 2 2
Tg þ Tsky (41a) whereVwind is the wind velocity in m/s.

Or referred to the ambient temperature as (Tamb ):

. 4.4. Radiation heat transfer coefficient between wall and glass
* 
hrad rad
g
sky* ¼ hg
sky Tg
Tsky Tg
Tamb (41b)
The radiativeheat transfer coefficient between absorber wall
and glass cover may be obtained from:

pez et al. / Energy 170 (2019) 683e708
R. Vargas-Lo 705

  therefore it was ignored in the simulations. In another paper,

T 2g þ T 2mp Tg þ Tmp Mathuret al. [83]considered that the air has been assumed to be
hrad
mp
g ¼s   (44) still just behind the absorber wall and therefore it was taken as
1 εg þ 1 εmp
1
2.8 W/m2K.
where εmp is the surface emissivity of the absorber wall. Ong[60]
used a value of εmp ¼ 0:94for his simulation, Bansalet al. [62]and 4.8. Overall transfer coefficient from absorber plate to the PCMand
Mathuret al. [83,84]reported a value of εmp ¼ 0:95for their results. between the PCM

The transport coefficients between the absorber plate and the

4.5. Convection heat transfer coefficient between wall and glass
PCM: hcond cond
mp1
pcm; 1 and hpcm; n
mp2 , and between the phase change

hconv conv
mp
f andhf
g are the average convective heat transfer co- material hcond cond
pcm; ði
1Þ
pcm; i and hpcm; i
pcm; ðiþ1Þ required in equations
efficients between absorber wall and the fluid and the glass and (28-30)can be obtained as:
fluid. These coefficients are computed through the convective
Nusseltnumber (Nuconv ) from: 1
hcond
mp1
pcm; 1 ¼   (48)
dmp1 2lmp1 þ dx 2lpcm;1
Nuconv
mp
f
lf Nuconv
f
g
lf
hconv
mp
f ¼ and hconv
f
g ¼ (45)
Li Li 1
hcond
pcm; n
mp2 ¼   (49)
The average convective Nusseltnumber is done through exper- dmp2 2lmp2 þ dx 2lpcm; n
imental correlations reported by Churchill and Chu in 1975 [112],
where the Nuconv dependson the Rayleigh number (Ra) and the andconsidering that it only exist heat conduction in the PCMand
Prandtlnumber (Pr). The Rayleigh number depends on the tem- the convective effects are negligible, we have
perature difference between the surface (glass o absorber wall) and
1
the fluid. hcond
pcm; ði
1Þ
pcm; i ¼
. .  (50a)
If Ra < 109 there is laminar flow and the expression to compute dx 2lpcm; i þ dx 2lpcm; ði
1Þ
Nuconv is:

.h i4=9 1
hcond
pcm; i
pcm; ðiþ1Þ ¼
. .  (50b)
Nuconv ¼ 0:68 þ 0:67Ra1=4 1 þ ð0:492=PrÞ9=16 (46a) dx 2lpcm; þ dx 2lpcm;
i ðiþ1Þ

andif Ra > 109 there is turbulent flow and the average convective where lmp1 , lmp2 and lpcm; i are the thermal conductivities of the
Nusseltnumber is: absorber wall 1 and 2, and PCM, respectively.
n
.h i8=27 o2
Nuconv ¼ 0:825 þ 0:387Ra1=6 1 þ ð0:492=PrÞ9=16 5. Physical properties of air
(46b)
The physical properties of air (mf ,rf ,lf and CP ; f ) have been
wherethe Raleigh number is defined as Ra ¼ Gr Prand the considered to vary linearly with air temperature (Tf ) by Ong[60],
Prandtlnumber is Pr ¼ CP ; f mf =lf . Additionally, the Gra- Bansalet al. [62]and Mathuret al. [83,84]. The empirical relation-

ships of Ong[60]are validated in a range from 300to 350 K. On the
shofnumber is given by: Gr ¼ g bf
Tmp
Tf
L 3i =n2f or Gr ¼


other hand, similarly correlations were proposed by Arceet al. [56]

g bf
Tg
Tf
L 3i =n2f and the kinematic viscosity of fluid is nf ¼ and assuming to vary in potential form with Tf in K, which are
mf =rf . validated in a range from 250 to 400 K:
h i
mf ¼ 2:2078 T f 0:7756 x 10
7 (51a)
4.6. Overall transfer coefficient from vertical glass cover to ambient
(U glass )
loss .
rf ¼ 351:9 Tf (51b)
Due to the combined effect of convection by wind and radiati-
glass glass
veheat transfer from glass cover to sky, U loss is given by U loss ¼ h i
* lf ¼ 0:1723 T 0:8812 x10
3 (51c)
hconv rad
g
amb þ hg
sky* .
f

h i
4.7. Overall transfer coefficient from vertical wall to room (U wall
loss ) CP;f ¼ 0:9125 T 0:0174
f x103 (51d)

The overall heat transfer coefficient from the rear of the vertical Finally, the volumetric coefficient of expansion may be compute
wall (having absorber) to the room is given by: as bf ¼ 1=Tf .

1
U wall
loss ¼  conv    (47) 6. Instantaneous efficiency
1 hint þ dmp lmp
The instantaneous thermal efficiency of a solar collector may be
where hconv
int is the heat transfer coefficient by convection between used to compute the thermal efficiency of the solar chimney; this is
the vertical back wall and interior of room. Ong[60]and Arceet al. due to some similarities between the two devices [108]. Therefore,
[56]reported a value of hconv 2
int ¼ 10W/m K for their simulation. the instantaneous thermal efficiency of heat collection by the solar
However, Mathuret al. [84]considered that hconv
int is very small and chimney is given by:
706
pez et al. / Energy 170 (2019) 683e708
R. Vargas-Lo

 Acknowledgment
m cP;f Tf ;out
Tf ;in
h¼ x100
WLi Gsolar
 doctorate scholarship program.
where m is the mass flow rate in kg/s, cP ; f is the specific heat of the
air in J/kg K. Tf ; out and Tf ; in are the outlet and inlet temperature of
the air in the channel (K), respectively. W Li isthe area of solar
collection (m2).
7. Conclusions
An overview of transient theoretical studies with different
models of solar chimneys using the global energy balance (GEB)
was presented as the first objective. A second objective was to
present a new model for the transient simulation of a solar chim-
ney, which incorporated a phase change material (PCM).
The GEBmodels are very useful from an engineering point of
view, since these models can predict the dynamic behavior of a
system in relatively short times and one can integrate them with
computational tools like Building Energy Simulation (BES) pro-
grams to evaluate the thermal performance of buildings. The
analysis of the literature on the solar chimney modeling using
GEBhighlights that the transient mathematical model are scarce,
from the authors' knowledge, there are only 24 published works
and only, Kaneko et al. [38], Sharma et al. [39], Li and Liu [45], Liu
and Li [47], Lu et al. [49], and Li et al. [50]incorporated a phase
change material (PCM) in the solar chimney of their study. In
general, the results of a solar chimney using a phase change ma-
terial shows that the temperature variation of PCMand air in the
chimney were available for the natural ventilation in evening and
night periods. Results also showed that the phase change temper-
ature of PCMgreatly affects the thermal performance of a solar
chimney. Therefore, there is a need for more studies focused on
extending the period of operation of the solar chimney, either
through a massive wall or a phase change material.
Other hand, five mathematical models for the simulation of a
solar chimney in steady state available in the literature were pre-
sented, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each model.
Based on the analysis of the five models, it is concluded that the
model - III and model - V (thin plate model) have an advantage over
the remaining models and they were mathematically extended to
consider the transient effects. The model eIII (transient) and model
- V (transient) are highly recommended to be implemented as a
solar chimney model in a BES program.
Finally, a new unsteady mathematical model for a double-
channel solar chimney, which incorporated a phase change mate-
rial into the absorber wallwas proposed. Due to the orientation and
configuration of this model, the solar chimney increases the time of
solar radiation over it and increases its effective area collection
during the day. This new model allows building designers and
engineers to predict the potential benefit that a solar chimney with
PCMmay have for ventilation.
 A review of mathematical models for solar chimneys with a
PCMis presented.
 The overview focuses on the Global Energy Balance (GEB)
models.
 Only six studies incorporated a phase change material (PCM) in
a solar chimney.
 Advantages and disadvantages of five mathematical models
were analyzed.
 A new mathematical model for a double-channel solar chimney
was proposed.
(52)
pezacknowledges the support provided by the-
R. Vargas-Lo
Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologíagiven through its
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