NUMERICAL ANALYSIS COMPARING the THERMAL PERFORMANCE of TWO SOLAR CHIMNEYS COMBINED with THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE MADE of PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS EMBEDDED in A METAL FOAM

The two-dimensional numerical analysis of a solar chimney integrated with a phase change material (PCM) wall on a south face of building is the primary goal of this work. While the chimney has a converging channel with a vertical absorbing wall and an angled glass plate, the absorbing capacity wall employs PCM and metal foam. To identify the most efficient thermal performance, four configurations of the absorbing capacity wall which serves as a latent thermal energy storage are studied. The numerical study uses a transient assessment of a two-dimensional airflow model with the Boussinesq assumption and the k-? turbulence model, where the chimney channel dimensions are given. The finite volume method in Ansys-Fluent is utilized for simulations. The study examines the thermal and fluid dynamic performance of the phase change material absorbing wall at varying thicknesses. Simulations based on average days in June and December in Aversa, Italy, use aluminium foam-embedded paraffin wax with melting temperatures of 31°C and 42°C. Results include temperature distributions, air velocity, channel profiles, liquid fractions. Understanding the thermal differences between different PCM with metal foam and optimising the energy conversion system are the two main goals of the evaluation.