Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

Solar Energy 86 (2012) 2783–2794

www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Flow reversal effects on buoyancy induced air flow in a solar chimney

Rakesh Khanal ⇑, Chengwang Lei
School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

Received 23 March 2012; received in revised form 15 June 2012; accepted 16 June 2012
Available online 25 July 2012

Communicated by: Associate Editor Matheos Santamouris

Abstract

This paper reports a numerical investigation of flow reversal effects on the buoyancy induced air flow in a solar chimney for venti-
lation applications over a range of controlling parameters. The reverse flow phenomenon is quantitatively examined by calculating its
penetration depth. In order to suppress the reverse flow and enhance ventilation performance, a configuration with an inclined passive
wall is proposed as a new design; the effectiveness of this design has been examined over the Rayleigh number range of 109 6 Ra 6 1011 .
It is identified that there exists an optimum inclination angle corresponding to an optimum aspect ratio at which the mass flow rate is the
maximum for a given Rayleigh number. The numerical results are supported by a scaling argument and a flow visualization experiment.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Natural convection; Solar chimney; Reverse flow; Penetration depth; Ventilation

1. Introduction channel is of prime importance. Drori et al. (2005) pre-

The interest in natural convection research has been
stimulated by its vast array of applications often encoun-
tered in nature and in industrial and domestic systems such
as cooling of electronic components, heat exchangers, and
passive heating, cooling and ventilation of buildings etc. A
passive system such as solar chimney attached to a building
serves as an excellent ventilation means that relies only on a
natural driving force, i.e. the energy from the sun. This pas-
sive ventilation system is gaining momentum because of its
potential benefits in terms of energy savings and environ-
mental impact compared with mechanical ventilation
systems.
Solar chimney may be described as an air channel with
the flow constrained between two vertical walls. For venti-
lation applications, the determination of the mass flow rate
resulting from the temperature difference between a heated
(active) wall and the adjacent air inside the solar chimney
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 9351 5155; fax: +61 2 9351 3343.
E-mail address: r.khanal@sydney.edu.au (R. Khanal).
sented experimental results of a solar chimney at low heat
flux conditions (50–90 W/m2) for a small size mobile home.
The results showed the dependence of the ventilation per-
formance on the roof temperature, which was also con-
firmed by a corresponding numerical investigation (Drori
et al., 2005). Arce et al. (2009) presented experimental
results for a large scale solar chimney model studied under
Mediterranean climatic conditions. The result showed the
effects of pressure difference between the inlet and outlet
openings on the air flow rate through the solar chimney.
Mathur et al. (2006) demonstrated the potential of a win-
dow sized solar chimney for room ventilation. The highest
ventilation rate was reported to be 5.6 ACH (air change per
hour) in a room of 27 m3 at a solar flux of 700 W/m2 with a
1-m high solar chimney. Similarly, Chantawong et al.
(2006) studied the use of window as a solar chimney for
room ventilation. The measured air flow rate was reported
to be between 0.13 and 0.28 m3/s.
Among the previous numerical studies, Gan (2006) con-
sidered the effect of the air channel width on the buoyancy
induced ventilation rate for a large scale solar chimney

0038-092X/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2012.06.015
2784 R. Khanal, C. Lei / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 2783–2794
Nomenclature
A aspect ratio
Aopt optimum aspect ratio
Dp penetration depth of the reverse flow (m)
g gravitational acceleration (m/s2)
Ha absorber height (m)
Hi inlet aperture height (m)
k thermal conductivity (W/m K)
m_ mass flow rate per unit width (kg/s m)
m_ opt optimum mass flow rate (kg/s m)
n direction normal to the glaze
p local fluid pressure (Pa)
p0 ambient pressure (Pa)
Pr Prandtl number
q00 input heat flux (W/m2)
Ra Rayleigh number
T local fluid temperature (K)
T0 reference fluid temperature (K)
Tbs steady state temperature scale for the thermal
boundary layer (K)
model with an absorber height of 6 m. The existence of an
optimum air gap width between 0.55 m and 0.6 m for a uni-
form heat flux (300 W/m2) condition was reported by Gan
(2006). Zamora and Kaiser (2009) also studied the effect of
the air gap width on the thermal (heat transfer) and
dynamic (mass flow) behaviour of the buoyancy induced
flow under two different heating conditions: uniform wall
temperature (UWT) and uniform heat flux (UHF). Bacha-
roudis et al. (2007) studied natural convection phenomena
inside solar chimney for a UWT heating condition for a
large scale solar chimney model with a 4-m absorber height
and an aspect ratio (air gap width to height) of 0.0125.
Their result showed that the streamwise velocity and hence
the mass flow rate increase with the absorber temperature.
More recently, Khanal and Lei (2011a) studied the buoy-
ancy induced ventilation under a UHF condition for a
small scale solar chimney model (with an absorber height
<1 m) over a range of heat inputs (20–100 W/m2) and
reported the existence of an optimum inlet aperture height.
It was further reported that the ventilation performance in
terms of the mass flow rate of a solar chimney is more sen-
sitive to the change of the air gap width than to the change
of the inlet aperture height.
The above literature survey indicates that a considerable
body of literature on solar chimney exists; a recent review
of the topic may be found in Khanal and Lei (2011b)
and Zhai et al. (2011). Most of the reported studies focused
on large scale solar chimneys. The study of small scale solar
chimney ventilation has received relatively less research
attention despite its potential application to room ventila-
tion (see, e.g., Bansal et al., 2005; Chantawong et al.,
2006; Mathur et al., 2006). To the best of the authors’
knowledge, there has been no reported investigation of
u x component of the velocity (m/s)
v y component of the velocity (m/s)
vg velocity scale of the reverse flow (m/s)
vTs steady state velocity scale of the thermal bound-
ary layer (m/s)
Wg air gap width (m)
Wr width of the reverse flow (m) (= Wg–dTs)
x horizontal coordinate (m)
y vertical coordinate (m)
Greek symbols
a thermal diffusivity (m2/s)
b coefficient of thermal expansion (1/K)
dTs steady state thickness scale of the thermal
boundary layer (m)
h inclination angle of the passive wall (o)
t kinematic viscosity (m2/s)
q density (kg/m3)
solar chimney ventilation with the combination of a verti-
cal absorber wall and an inclined passive wall in the open
literature. Moreover, the impact of a reported reverse flow
phenomenon (see, e.g., Gan and Riffat, 1998; Chen et al.,
2003) on the ventilation performance of a solar chimney
in terms of mass flow rate is yet to be ascertained. These
are the impetus behind the present work.
The present study focuses on steady state buoyancy
induced convective flow of air inside a small scale solar
chimney with either a vertical or inclined passive wall.
The effect of the reverse flow on the exiting mass flow rate
is quantitatively investigated and a novel concept of
inclined passive wall solar chimney (IPWSC) is proposed
as a better design solution to enhance the ventilation per-
formance of a solar chimney by reducing the reverse flow.
The problem outlined here addresses a fundamental fluid
mechanics issue that has a great potential of application
to passive building ventilation systems.
2. Problem formulation and numerical modeling
Fig. 1a depicts the physical system of a conventional
solar chimney for ventilation with important dimensions
and boundary conditions. It is essentially a vertical air
channel bounded on the left by the external glazing and
on the right by the absorber wall. The horizontal distance
between the glazing and the absorber wall is referred to
as the air gap width, Wg. The heated air contained between
the glazing and the absorber wall rises as a consequence of
buoyancy effect and eventually exits from the outlet aper-
ture to the open atmosphere, whereas the relatively cold
air is drawn into the vertical channel through the inlet
aperture.
 R. Khanal, C. Lei / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 2783–2794 2785

Fig. 1. Schematics of solar chimney systems with important boundary conditions. (a) Vertical passive wall solar chimney. (b) Inclined passive wall solar
chimney.

Different heating conditions were adopted for solar vertical plate heated by a uniform heat flux, the transition
chimney modeling in the previous investigations. Zamora to turbulence occurs at Ra P 2  1013 . Therefore, we
and Kaiser (2009) considered UWT heating, and for most model the flow inside the solar chimney as laminar.
of the cases they considered symmetric heating for the ver- Since the temperature difference between the inlet and exit
tical walls. A case with asymmetric wall heating was also of the solar chimney system is not expected to be very high,
reported by Zamora and Kaiser (2009). Moshfegh and the usual Boussinesq approximation is adopted. Under this
Sandberg (1996) and later Gan (2006) adopted a different assumption, the simplified two-dimensional steady-state
modeling strategy for solar chimney with one wall adia- Naiver–Stokes equations along with the energy and continu-
batic and the other wall with a uniform heat flux. We ity equations to be solved take the following form:
believe the latter modeling strategy is a better representa-
tion of the field situation as solar flux, after transmitting @u @v
þ ¼0 ð4Þ
through the glazing, is absorbed by the absorber wall @x @y
whose temperature is unknown. Furthermore, the heat loss  2 
@u @u 1 @P @ u @2u
through the glazing may be considered negligible. There- u þv ¼ þt þ ð5Þ
@x @y q @x @x2 @y 2
fore, in the present study we adopt the wall thermal bound-  2 
ary conditions similar to those adopted in Moshfegh and @v @v 1 @P @ v @2v
u þv ¼ þt þ þ gbðT  T 0 Þ ð6Þ
Sandberg (1996) and Gan (2006). @x @y q @y @x2 @y 2
A simple dimensional analysis shows that the convection  2 
flow inside a solar chimney channel can be characterized by @T @T @ T @2T
u þv ¼a þ ð7Þ
three major non dimensional parameters, namely the Ray- @x @y @x2 @y 2
leigh number, the Prandtl number and the aspect ratio,
which are defined as follows: 2.1. Boundary conditions
gbq 00
H 4a
Ra ¼ ð1Þ The computational domain is the air space between the
atk
glazing and absorber wall with inlet and outlet apertures as
t
Pr ¼ ð2Þ shown in Fig. 1. The following boundary conditions are
a adopted (similar boundary conditions have been adopted
Ha in Bacharoudis et al. (2007)):
A¼ ð3Þ
Wg
Air is the working fluid in the solar chimney whose Prandtl 2.1.1. Pressure inlet
number is approximately constant. With the isoflux heating This boundary condition is prescribed at the inlet of the
condition on the absorber wall, simulations are carried out solar chimney. The total (gauge) pressure is set to zero at
over a wide range of Rayleigh numbers 104 6 Ra 6 1011 in the inlet, and the inflow is assumed to be normal to the
the present study. Chen et al. (2003) reported that, for a inlet. The incoming air is at the reference temperature.
2786 R. Khanal, C. Lei / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 2783–2794
2.1.2. Pressure outlet
This boundary condition applies to the exit of the solar
chimney. It is assumed that the streamwise variations of all
velocity components and temperature are negligible. The
fluid pressure at the exit is assumed to be the same as the
ambient pressure. In case there is a backflow entering the
chimney through the exit, the backflow velocity is assumed
to be normal to the exit boundary and the backflow tem-
perature is at the reference temperature.
2.1.3. Wall
A rigid no-slip wall condition is imposed on all walls
(including the vertical absorber wall, the horizontal base
and the inclined glazing wall). Moreover, a constant heat
flux q00 is imposed on the absorber wall, and all the other
walls are assumed adiabatic.
2.2. Numerical procedure
The governing conservation equations of mass, momen-
tum and energy are simultaneously solved on a staggered
grid using a finite volume solver. The coupling between
the momentum and continuity equations through pressure
is based on the SIMPLE scheme (Patankar, 1980), and the
second-order upwind differencing scheme is adopted for the
convective terms of the momentum and energy transport
equations. To ensure numerical stability, the descretized
equations are iterated with under-relaxation factors.
Two-dimensional quadrilateral elements are used to cre-
ate a structured, non-uniform mesh with finer grid distribu-
tion in the vicinity of vertical wall boundaries as well as
near the inlet and exit with an expansion factor of 1.05.
The accuracy of the numerical result is ascertained by a
grid dependence study, which is performed on two meshes:
372  72 and 744  144 for the highest Rayleigh number
Ra = 1011. The mass flow rate at the exit of the chimney
is chosen for comparison. It is found that the variation
of the calculated mass flow rates between these two meshes
is only 1.2%. Based on the numerical test, the coarser mesh
is adopted as it can provide sufficient spatial resolution and
requires much less computational time than the finer mesh.
The similar numerical procedure has been adopted by Kha-
nal and Lei (2011a) to validate the numerical result against
an experiment, and a good agreement between the simula-
tion and experiment was reported.
3. Results
The following sections present two-dimensional, lami-
nar, and steady-state numerical results for a solar chimney
with an imposed heat flux on the vertical active wall. Two
sets of numerical simulations are carried out. In the first set
of simulations, the ventilation performance in terms of the
mass flow rate of the conventional solar chimney configu-
ration (refer to Fig. 1a) is calculated for Rayleigh numbers
over the range of 104 6 Ra 6 1011 with a fixed aspect ratio
A = 7.3. In the second set of simulations, we consider the
solar chimney configuration with an inclined passive wall
(refer to Fig. 1b). Under this configuration, the glazing wall
is hinged at the base, allowing it to incline towards the
absorber wall. The aperture of the air channel at the exit
varies with the inclination of the glazing wall, and the
smallest distance between the vertical and inclined walls
is considered as the air gap width (refer to Fig. 1b), which
is used to calculate the aspect ratio in Eq. (3). The effect of
the inclination angle of the passive wall on the mass flow
rate is calculated for the following cases: A = 7.3–57.2 in
the range 109 6 Ra 6 1011 with the inclination angle vary-
ing from 0o (corresponding to the vertical position) to 6o.
It should be noted that the effect of the inlet aperture
height on the ventilation performance of solar chimney
has been reported previously (e.g., Bassiouny and Koura,
2008), and more recently, the present authors (Khanal
and Lei, 2011a) have shown that the mass flow rate
through the solar chimney is more sensitive to the change
in the air gap width than to the change in the inlet aperture
height. Since this study is focused on understanding the
reverse flow and its impact on the ventilation performance
of solar chimney, the effect of inlet aperture height is not
considered.
3.1. Mass flow rate prediction
The dependence of the calculated mass flow rate on the
Rayleigh number for the configuration with a vertical pas-
sive wall is plotted in Fig. 2a. Here the mass flow rate is
normalized by the product of the air density and thermal
diffusivity evaluated at the reference temperature. The
two-dimensional mass flow rate is calculated as (assuming
a unit width in the lateral direction)
m_ ¼ qW g v ð8Þ
It is evident in Fig. 2a that the mass flow rate increases with
the Rayleigh number or input heat flux which is in agree-
ment with previously reported results (e.g., Chen et al.,
2003; Burek and Habeb, 2007). However, the increasing
rate of the mass flow rate slows down as the Rayleigh num-
ber increases beyond a certain value. The slowdown of the
increase of the mass flow rate with the Rayleigh number is
attributed to a reverse flow occurring at the exit of the
chimney at high Rayleigh numbers. To further understand
this flow behaviour, isotherms and contours of streamlines
for Rayleigh numbers of 1011,1010, and 109 respectively are
plotted in Fig. 2b and c.
Fig. 2b shows that a distinct vertical thermal boundary
layer is formed adjacent to the heated wall for all the three
Rayleigh numbers. Over this range of the Rayleigh num-
bers, the steady-state thickness of the thermal boundary
layer, which decreases as the Rayleigh number increases,
is much smaller than the chimney air gap width. The
absence of isotherms near the glazing suggests that convec-
tion is strong and predominant near the absorber wall as
expected. Since the air enters the chimney horizontally, it
has to make a sharp turn before being entrained by the
 R. Khanal, C. Lei / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 2783–2794 2787

consequence, the steady-state thickness of the thermal

boundary layer reduces (refer to Fig. 2b). The reduction
of the thermal boundary layer thickness has a negative
impact on the ventilation performance due to the presence
of the reverse flow.
The reverse flow is not observed at low Rayleigh num-
bers. At low Rayleigh numbers, the heat input into the sys-
tem is reduced and so does the convection effect. As a
consequence, the thermal boundary layer expands to the
full air gap width, and the solar chimney operates in an
indistinct thermal boundary layer regime characterized by
conduction. The thermal flow structures in such flow
regime for two representative Rayleigh numbers of 104
and 105 are presented in Fig. 3. It is clear in Fig. 3 that
the thermal boundary layer is indistinct everywhere in the
solar chimney. The corresponding streamlines are parallel
to the chimney walls. In this flow regime, the thermal
boundary layer thickness is independent of the Rayleigh
number. As the Rayleigh number increases, the thermal
flow in the solar chimney is accelerated further due to
increasing heating effect. Accordingly, the mass flow rate
through the solar chimney increases sharply with the Ray-
leigh number (refer to Fig. 2a). This trend persists until a
critical point (around Ra  108) is reached, at which the
thermal boundary layer becomes distinct and a reverse flow
starts to occur at the exit of the chimney.

3.2. Reverse flow and its penetration depth

The phenomenon of inflow of exterior fluid into the

chimney has been reported by several researchers (e.g., Jörg

Fig. 2. (a) Effect of the Rayleigh number on the predicted mass flow rate
for vertical passive wall solar chimney. (b) Isotherms and (c) contours of
stream functions for different Rayleigh numbers (isotherms from 302 K to
334 K with an interval of 2 K and stream functions from 0 kg/s to
5.63  103 kg/s with an interval of 2.8  104 kg/s).

thermal boundary layer adjacent to the absorber wall. This

results in a small circulation zone in the region near the
leading edge of the thermal boundary layer. This feature
is further elaborated in the streamlines in Fig. 2c. It is seen
in Fig. 2c that air is entrained into the thermal boundary
layer from both upstream and downstream. The entrain-
ment of air from downstream constitutes the reverse flow
which occurs at the exit and penetrates downwards into
the chimney (refer to Fig. 2c). The occurrence of the reverse
flow results in a reduction of the total mass flow rate
through the solar chimney, and thus is not desirable for
ventilation applications.
Fig. 3. (a) Isotherms and (b) contours of stream functions for indistinct
It is also seen in Fig. 2c that the penetration depth of
thermal boundary layer flow regime for two representative Rayleigh
the reverse flow increases with the Rayleigh number. As numbers (isotherms from 300 K to 345 K with an interval of 2 K and
the Rayleigh number increases, heat input to the system stream functions from 0 kg/s to 7.96  105 kg/s with an interval of
also increases, and so does the convection effect. As a 3.98  106 kg/s).
2788 R. Khanal, C. Lei / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 2783–2794
Fig. 4. Contours of the vertical velocity component obtained at Ra = 1011
and A = 7.3. Red color represents positive (upwards) velocity and blue
color represents negative (downwards) velocity associated with the reverse
flow. The penetration depth is measured from the exit to the lowest
position where negative velocity is observed.
and Scorer, 1967; Sparrow et al., 1984; Marcondes and
Maliska, 1999; Andreozzi et al., 2010). Most of these inves-
tigations are related to channel, channel–chimney systems
and/or conventional chimney systems. Among the studies
related to solar chimney ventilation, Chen et al. (2003)
reported the occurrence of the reverse flow at the exit of
the chimney which penetrated further down into the chim-
ney with the increase of the air gap width. Similarly, Gan
and Riffat (1998) reported the occurrence of the reverse
flow at the exit of the chimney and attributed the reduction
of the mass flow rate with the increase of the air gap width
to this reverse flow. Neither of these investigations however
provided quantitative information about the reverse flow
phenomenon and its effect on the resulting mass flow rate.
Here we quantify the reverse flow phenomenon and its
effect on ventilation performance by calculating the pene-
tration depth of the reverse flow. Fig. 4 shows typical con-
tours of the vertical velocity component obtained at
Ra = 1011 and A = 7.3. Two distinct zones can be identified
in this figure, one with positive (upwards) velocity shown in
red1 and the other with negative (downwards) velocity
shown in blue. The negative velocity is associated with
the reverse flow entering from the exit. We here define
the penetration depth as the distance measured from the
exit to the lowest position where the negative velocity is
observed.
Fig. 5 shows the dependence of the penetration depth
(normalized by the absorber height) on the Rayleigh num-
ber for vertical passive wall configuration operating in the
convective flow regime (with relatively high Rayleigh num-
bers). It has been observed in Fig. 2c that the penetration
depth of the reverse flow increases with the Rayleigh num-
ber. This is confirmed in Fig. 5. The maximum normalized
penetration depth is 0.73 for Ra = 1011. The monotonic
dependence of the penetration depth on the Rayleigh num-
ber indicates that the reverse flow becomes increasingly
stronger as the Rayleigh number increases. As a conse-
quence, beyond a certain Rayleigh number the slope of
the mass flow rate curve in Fig. 2a decreases, indicating
1
For interpretation of color in Figs. 4, 12 and 13, the reader is referred
to the web version of this article.
Fig. 5. Dependence of the normalized penetration depth on the Rayleigh
number.
that the increasing rate of the total mass flow rate through
the solar chimney is reduced at high Rayleigh numbers.
3.3. Inclined passive wall solar chimney (IPWSC)
In order to maximize the mass flow rate and enhance the
ventilation performance for high Rayleigh number applica-
tions, it is desirable to minimize the reverse flow entering
from the exit. Here we propose a different solar chimney
design with an inclined passive wall (glazing) and a vertical
active wall (absorber), namely IPWSC (inclined passive
wall solar chimney, refer to Fig. 1b). To the best of the
authors’ knowledge, no work on IPWSC has been reported
in the open literature. It will be demonstrated below that
the IPWSC is a better design for minimizing the reverse
flow and maximizing the ventilation performance of solar
chimney. In what follows we present results obtained for
the inclined passive wall solar chimney configuration. It
should be noted that the comparison of the results for var-
ious inclination angles is based on a fix base for a given
Rayleigh number with the air gap width at the exit chang-
ing with the inclination of the passive wall. The inclination
angle h is measured from the vertical upright position (cor-
responding to a 0o inclination). The same boundary condi-
tions as described in Section 2.1 are applied to the IPWSC.
The dependence of the normalized mass flow rate on the
inclination angle of the passive wall for Ra = 109, 1010, and
1011 respectively is shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 6 also shows the
dependence of the normalized penetration depth on the
inclination angle for a representative case of Ra = 1011. It
is evident in this figure that the mass flow rate increases
with the Rayleigh number, as expected. It is also interesting
to note that the mass flow rate initially increases with the
inclination angle and attains a maximum value at a partic-
ular inclination angle. Further increase of the inclination
angle has a negative effect on the mass flow rate. This result
indicates that there exist an optimum inclination angle and
an optimum (maximum) mass flow rate whose values
depend on the Rayleigh number. This dependence is plot-
ted in Fig. 7. It is clear in Fig. 7 that both the optimum
inclination angle and the optimum mass flow rate increase
monotonically with the Rayleigh number.
 R. Khanal, C. Lei / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 2783–2794
In order to further understand the dependence of the
mass flow rate on the inclination angle, contours of stream
functions and isotherms for a representative Rayleigh num-
ber of 1011 with various inclination angles are shown in
Fig. 8. It is seen in Fig. 8a that, at the vertical upright posi-
tion (0o inclination), the entrainment of air into the thermal
boundary layer adjacent to the absorber wall is from both
upstream and downstream. With the increase of the inclina-
tion angle, the entrainment from downstream reduces,
whereas the entrainment from the upstream increases. Even-
tually all the entrainment comes from the upstream. It is also
interesting to observe that the reverse flow decreases with
the increase of the inclination angle of the passive wall,
and so does the penetration depth of the reverse flow. As a
consequence, the mass flow rate increases (refer to Fig. 6).
It is seen in Fig. 6 that the predicted mass flow rate peaks
at the 5o inclination angle. Therefore, the 5o inclination rep-
resents the optimum inclination angle for Ra = 1011. The
corresponding optimum mass flow rate (normalized as
described above) is 235, which is about 78% higher than that
predicted at the 0o inclination angle. This result shows that
with the inclined passive wall, the ventilation performance
of the solar chimney can be substantially improved. There-
fore, the IPWSC is a promising design solution to improve
the ventilation performance of a solar chimney.
It should be noted that the initial increase of the pre-
dicted mass flow rate with the increase of the inclination
angle (refer to Fig. 6) corresponds well with the reduction
of the penetration depth of the reverse flow observed in
Fig. 8a. As the inclination angle of the passive wall
increases, the exit aperture reduces, consequently the exit
pressure increases, which tends to stop the reverse flow.
The reverse flow disappears at the optimum inclination of
5o for the Rayleigh number 1011, and thus the penetration
depth reduces to zero. At this inclination, the exit aperture
is reduced to a size equivalent to the thickness of the ther-
mal boundary layer at this location (refer to Fig. 8b). For
inclination angles beyond the optimum value (5o for
Ra = 1011), the exiting thermal boundary layer flow is
partly ‘choked’. Accordingly the mass flow rate is reduced
despite that there is no reverse flow.
Fig. 6. Dependence of the mass flow rate and penetration depth on the
inclination angle of the passive wall. The penetration depth plot is for
Ra = 1011 only.
2789
Fig. 9 shows the dependence of the normalized penetra-
tion depth on the aspect ratio at different Rayleigh num-
bers for the IPWSC. It is clear in Fig. 9 that the
penetration depth of the reverse flow decreases with the
increase of the aspect ratio for a given Rayleigh number.
For Ra = 1011 at an aspect ratio of 26.7, the penetration
depth is reduced to zero, indicating the suppression of
the reverse flow. Similar flow conditions are achieved for
Ra = 1010 and Ra = 109 at aspect ratios of 17.4 and 12.9
respectively. For all the three Rayleigh numbers the maxi-
mum penetration depth is obtained at the smallest aspect
ratio of 7.3 calculated in this study, corresponding to the
configuration with a vertical passive wall (i.e., 0o inclina-
tion). It should be noted that the aspect ratios of 26.7,
17.4 and 12.9 correspond to an inclination angles of 5o,
4o and 3o respectively. These angles are the optimum incli-
nation angles for Ra = 1011, 1010 and 109respectively, at
which the mass flow rate is the maximum (refer to Fig. 6).
Therefore, there exists an optimum aspect ratio correspond-
ing to an optimum inclination angle for a given Rayleigh
number, at which the penetration depth is the minimum
and the corresponding mass flow rate is the maximum.
4. Discussions
4.1. Optimum aspect ratio and maximum mass flow rate
It is demonstrated above that the IPWSC is a better
design configuration for minimizing the reverse flow and
maximizing the mass flow rate to enhance natural ventila-
tion. The optimum (maximum) mass flow rate is achieved
at an optimum aspect ratio corresponding to an optimum
inclination angle for a given Rayleigh number. Inclining
the glazing wall further inwards or outwards beyond this
position would result in reduction of the mass flow rate
through the chimney (refer to Fig. 6). If the glazing wall is
inclined further inwards, the boundary layer flow will be
chocked; and if the glazing wall is inclined further outwards,
reverse flow will occur (refer to Fig. 8). Neither of these two
scenarios is favorable for the ventilation performance of the
solar chimney. Therefore, the optimum inclination angle is
desirable to achieve the optimum (maximum) mass flow rate.
Intuitively, this maximum mass flow rate would corre-
spond to the exiting mass flow rate of an undisturbed ther-
mal boundary layer (i.e. no choking or reverse flow effect).
Therefore, the optimum mass flow rate for a solar chimney
is achieved if the steady state thickness of the thermal
boundary layer is approximately the same as the air gap
width. Scaling laws for the steady state thickness and veloc-
ity of the thermal boundary layer adjacent to a semi-infinite
plate subject to uniform heating have been reported in Lin
and Armfield (2005) and Armfield et al. (2007). For small
Prandtl numbers (Pr <1), the steady state thermal bound-
ary layer thickness and velocity scales are respectively,
Ha
dTs  ð9Þ
ðRaPrÞ1=5
2790 R. Khanal, C. Lei / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 2783–2794

Fig. 7. Dependence of: (a) optimum inclination angle and (b) optimum mass flow rate on the Rayleigh number in the convective regime with a distinct
thermal boundary layer.

Fig. 8. Thermal flow structures at Ra = 1011 for different inclination angles. (a) Contours of stream functions from 0 to 6.2  103 kg/s with an interval of
3.2  104 kg/s. (b) Isotherms from 302 K to 334 K with an interval of 2 K.
 R. Khanal, C. Lei / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 2783–2794 2791

It is worth noting that the above correlations are applicable

to Rayleigh numbers over the range of 109 6 Ra 6 1011
only.

4.2. Penetration depth of the reverse flow

It is demonstrated above that the reverse flow and its

penetration depth increase with the Rayleigh number (refer
to Figs. 2 and 9). Therefore, it is anticipated that there
exists a correlation between the reverse flow velocity and
the boundary layer velocity, which depends on the Ray-
leigh number. From the vertical momentum Eq. (6), a bal-
ance between the advection and viscous terms yields the
following scale for the penetration depth, Dp.
v2g d2TS
Dp  ð15Þ
tvTs
Fig. 9. Normalized penetration depth against the aspect ratio for different
Rayleigh numbers. where the reverse flow velocity vg is scaled as
1=2
vg  ðgbT bs W r Þ ð16Þ
a 2=5
vTs  ðRaPrÞ ð10Þ
Ha As mentioned in Section 3, the reverse flow is the result of
the air entrainment of the thermal boundary layer. The
The optimum aspect ratio is then obtained as
rationale for formulating (16) is: (a) the reverse flow is indi-
1=5
Aopt  ðRaPrÞ ð11Þ rectly driven by the buoyancy force in the thermal bound-
ary layer, which depends on the temperature difference Tbs
at which the mass flow rate is the maximum. The corre-
between the thermal boundary layer and the ambient; and
sponding maximum mass flow rate is then obtained as
(b) the reverse flow is suppressed (vg ! 0) when the air gap
1=5
m_  qdTs  qaðRaPrÞ ð12Þ width is comparable with the thermal boundary layer
thickness (i.e. Wr ! 0).
Fig. 10 plots the numerical data against the scaling predic- Using relation (9) and the constant heat flux boundary
tions of (11) and (12). It should be noted that the numerical condition, the steady state thermal boundary layer temper-
data presented here are obtained at Rayleigh numbers in ature scale is obtained as
the convective flow regime only. The clearly linear correla-
tions between the calculated and predicted optimum aspect q00 a2
T bs  dTs  ðRaPrÞ4=5 ð17Þ
ratios and the maximum (optimum) mass flow rates con- k gbH 3a
firm the scaling predictions. The data presented in Fig. 10
are further correlated to obtain empirical correlations of Substituting (17) into (16) yields the velocity scale for the
the optimum aspect ratio and the corresponding maximum reverse flow
mass flow rate as functions of the Rayleigh and Prandtl " #1=2
1 1
numbers as vg  vTs  ð18Þ
A ðRaPrÞ1=5
1=5
Aopt ¼ 0:14ðRaPrÞ þ 3:4 ð13Þ
Finally, substituting (9), (10), and (18) into (15), the scale
m_ opt 1=5
¼ 1:65ðRaPrÞ  7:97 ð14Þ for the penetration depth of the reverse flow is obtained as
qa

Fig. 10. Verification of the numerical data against scaling predictions for (a) the optimum aspect ratio and (b) the optimum mass flow rate.
2792 R. Khanal, C. Lei / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 2783–2794

It is worth noting that the aspect ratio A in (18) and (19)

has been defined in Eq. (3), in which Wg is the air gap width
between the glazing and absorber walls. For an inclined
passive wall solar chimney, the air gap width Wg is the
shortest distance between the glazing and the absorber
walls (i.e., the exit aperture).
Fig. 11 plots the numerical data against the scaling pre-
diction of (19). It should be noted that the numerical data
presented here are obtained at Rayleigh numbers in the
convective flow regime with zero inclination angle of the
passive wall. The approximately linear correlation
(R2 = 0.94) between the numerical data and scaling predic-
tion confirms the dependence of the penetration depth on
the Rayleigh number, Prandtl number and aspect ratio,
as specified in (19).

Fig. 11. Verification of the numerical data against scaling prediction for
4.3. Experimental evidence
the penetration depth.

" # The effectiveness of the proposed concept of IPWSC is

DP 1 1 1 tested experimentally. Fig. 12a shows a schematic of the
  ð19Þ solar chimney experimental setup for smoke flow visualiza-
H a Pr A ðRaPrÞ1=5
tion. The heated plate assembly of the solar chimney is

Fig. 12. (a) Schematic of an experimental setup for smoke flow visualization. (b) A real image showing the air channel between the heated plate and
glazing wall.
 R. Khanal, C. Lei / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 2783–2794
Fig. 13. Flow visualization experiment with smoke. (a) Smoke test of a vertical passive wall solar chimney (b) Smoke test of an inclined passive wall solar
chimney at 5o inclination angle.
composed of a 1.4-mm thick fibreglass-reinforced silicon
rubber heater (WatlowÒ) sandwiched between two 3-mm
thick aluminium plates, delivering a variable heat flux over
a surface area of 0.35 m2. A variable auto transformer is
used to supply constant voltage and current to the rubber
heater in order to maintain a constant heat flux. A 12-
mm thick insulation board of high density material of the
same size as the heated plate is fixed on the back side of
the heated plate as shown in Fig. 12a. The other wall of
the air channel i.e., glazing wall is made up of 6-mm thick,
800-mm high Perspex sheet. All other vertical walls sur-
rounding the room and the channel are also made up of
6-mm thick Perspex sheet except for the top and bottom
horizontal walls which are made up of 10-mm thick Per-
spex sheet. The glazing wall is hinged at the bottom and
attached to two threaded rods. The inclination of the glaz-
ing wall is altered by adjusting the positions of the locking
screws to tilt the glazing wall inwards. The design of the
apparatus allows both the base air gap width and the incli-
nation of the glaze to be adjusted.
Flow visualization experiment is carried out for a fixed
base air gap width (100 mm) at a fixed Rayleigh number
Ra  1011 with different inclination angles from 0o to 5o.
Typically a steady state is achieved 2–3 hours after the start
of the experiment. After the attainment of the steady state,
flow visualization is carried out. Smoke is pre-generated
using an Antari Fog machine and collected in a chamber
made from cardboard boxes (1600 mm  635 mm 
635 mm). The chamber is used to minimize the disturbance
to the convective flow caused by the smoke generator,
which is turned off during the smoke visualization experi-
ment. The stored smoke in the storage chamber is drawn
naturally into the room adjacent to the air channel through
a tapered passage. The air movement in the air channel is
then photographed using a camera. The same procedure
is repeated with different inclination angles. Whilst the
present experimental set-up allows us to qualitatively
observe the reverse flow and the effect of the inclination
of the glazing wall on the reverse flow, it is difficult to
extract quantitative information from these experiments.
The results of smoke tests with a vertical and an
inclined passive wall are shown in Fig. 13a and b respec-
2793
tively. Fig. 13a shows a region of reverse flow (indicated
by the dotted lines) adjacent to the passive wall. The
reverse flow is initiated at the exit and penetrates down-
wards into the chimney. This region can be identified by
observing the contrast of the smoke density in different
regions. The smoke is denser in the region adjacent to
the heated wall but lighter in the region adjacent to the
passive wall. The variation of the smoke density is due
to the inflow of fresh exterior air into the chimney from
the exit. On the other hand, no such feature is observed
in Fig. 13b when the passive wall is inclined at 5o angle
from the vertical. It is clearly seen in Fig. 13b that the
smoke exits as a jet from the chimney, indicating an
increase of the mass flow rate. This simple smoke visual-
ization experiment confirms that the IPWSC has the
potential to enhance the mass flow rate by reducing the
reverse flow and its penetration depth.
5. Conclusions
In this study, buoyancy driven natural convection
inside a solar chimney is investigated with a combined
numerical and analytical procedure which is supported
by a qualitative flow visualization experiment. It is
revealed that the total mass flow rate through the solar
chimney with a vertical passive wall is strongly affected
by the presence of a reverse flow occurring at the exit
of the channel, the penetration depth of which is depen-
dent on the Rayleigh number. A new design with an
inclined passive wall is proposed for maximizing the
ventilation rate for high Rayleigh number applications.
The new design can improve the ventilation performance
significantly in comparison with the vertical passive wall
configuration, and the improvement is achieved by con-
trolling or suppressing the reverse flow and minimizing
its penetration depth.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Mr Nicholas Kennedy,
Mr Illan Maltz Turkienicz and Mr Henry Black for their
assistance with the experiment.
2794 R. Khanal, C. Lei / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 2783–2794
References
Andreozzi, A., Buonomo, B., Manca, O., 2010. Thermal and fluid
dynamic behaviours in symmetrical heated channel–chimney systems.
International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat and Fluid Flow
20, 811–833.
Arce, J., Jiménez, M.J., Guzmán, J.D., Heras, M.R., Alvarez, G., Xamán,
J., 2009. Experimental study for natural ventilation on a solar
chimney. Renewable Energy 34, 2928–2934.
Armfield, S.W., Patterson, J.C., Lin, W., 2007. Scaling investigation of the
natural convection boundary layer on an evenly heated plate.
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 50, 1592–1602.
Bassiouny, R., Koura, N.S.A., 2008. An analytical and numerical study of
solar chimney use for room ventilation. Energy and Buildings 40, 865–
873.
Bacharoudis, E., Vrachopoulos, M.G., Koukou, M.K., Margaris, D.,
Filios, A.E., Mavrommatis, S.A., 2007. Study of the natural convec-
tion phenomena inside a wall solar chimney with one wall adiabatic
and one wall under a heat flux. Applied Thermal Engineering 27,
2266–2275.
Bansal, N.K., Mathur, J., Mathur, S., Jain, M., 2005. Modeling of
window-sized solar chimneys for ventilation. Building and Environ-
ment 40, 1302–1308.
Burek, S.A.M., Habeb, A., 2007. Air flow and thermal efficiency
characteristics in solar chimneys and trombe walls. Energy and
Buildings 39, 128–135.
Chantawong, P., Hirunlabh, J., Zeghmati, B., Khedari, J., Teekasap, S.,
Win, M.M., 2006. Investigation on thermal performance of glazed
solar chimney walls. Solar Energy 80, 288–297.
Chen, Z.D., Bandopadhayay, P., Halldorsson, J., Byrjalsen, C., Heisel-
berg, P., Li, Y., 2003. An experimental investigation of a solar chimney
model with uniform wall heat flux. Building and Environment 38, 893–
906.
Drori, U., Dubovsky, V., Ziskind, G., 2005. Experimental verification of
induced ventilation. Journal of Environmental Engineering 131, 820–
826.
Gan, G., 2006. Simulation of buoyancy-induced flow in open cavities for
natural ventilation. Energy and Buildings 38, 410–420.
Gan, G., Riffat, S.B., 1998. A numerical study of solar chimney for natural
ventilation of buildings with heat recovery. Applied Thermal Engi-
neering 18, 1171–1187.
Jörg, O., Scorer, R.S., 1967. An experimental study of cold inflow into
chimneys. Atmospheric Environment 1, 645-646, IN643-IN645, 647-
654.
Khanal, R., Lei, C., 2011a. A numerical investigation of the ventilation
performance of a solar chimney. ANZIAM Journal 52, C899–C913.
Khanal, R., Lei, C., 2011b. Solar chimney-a passive strategy for natural
ventilation. Energy and Buildings 43, 1811–1819.
Lin, W., Armfield, SW., 2005. Unsteady natural convection on an evenly
heated vertical plate for Prandtl number Pr < 1. Physical Review E 72,
066309–066317.
Marcondes, F., Maliska, C., 1999. Treatment of the inlet boundary
bonditions in natural -convection flows in open-ended channels.
Numerical Heat Transfer, Part B: Fundamentals 35, 317–345.
Mathur, J., Bansal, N.K., Mathur, S., Jain, M., Anupma, 2006.
Experimental investigations on solar chimney for room ventilation.
Solar Energy 80, 927–935.
Moshfegh, B., Sandberg, M., 1996. Investigation of fluid flow and heat
transfer in a vertical channel heated from one side by PV elements Part
I–Numerical study. Renewable Energy 8, 248–253.
Patankar, S.V., 1980. Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow. Hemi-
sphere Publishing Corporation, New York.
Sparrow, E.M., Chrysler, G.M., Azevedo, L.F., 1984. Observed flow
reversals and measured-predicted Nusselt numbers for natural con-
vection in a one-sided heated vertical channel. Journal of Heat
Transfer 106, 325–332.
Zamora, B., Kaiser, A.S., 2009. Optimum wall-to-wall spacing in solar
chimney shaped channels in natural convection by numerical investi-
gation. Applied Thermal Engineering 29, 762–769.
Zhai, X.Q., Song, Z.P., Wang, R.Z., 2011. A review for the applications of
solar chimneys in buildings. Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews 15, 3757–3767.