Modeling,simulation and optimization of general solar updraft towers

A model to describe a solar chimney power plant with a generally sloped collector field and for the general situation of humid air is presented. This is a significant development of existing simple models for solar updraft towers with planar collector fields for the situation of purely dry air. The model describing the gas dynamics in the collector and in the chimney includes a turbine model, friction and heat transfer losses, evaporation and condensation models etc. However, the relevant physics can be modeled in one space dimension. It is the result of a fully compressible gas dynamic model in the small Mach number limit. A numerical algorithm is defined which admits very fast simulations. Therefore optimization procedures can easily be applied. Numerical results on optimization with respect to geometric and physical parameters which may be considered both in the planning and the operational phase are presented. The results are compared qualitatively and – if available – quantitatively to prototype data and to simulations from the literature.