Solar Energy 76 (2004) 235241

www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Solar chimney turbine characteristics

om *, A.J. Gannon
T.W. von Backstr
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa
Received 17 January 2003; received in revised form 5 August 2003; accepted 7 August 2003

Abstract
A typical layout of a solar chimney power plant has a single axial turbine with radial inow through inlet guide
vanes at the base of the chimney. Turbine eciency depends on the turbine blade row and turbine diuser loss coef-
cients. The paper presents analytical equations in terms of turbine ow and load coecient and degree of reaction, to
express the inuence of each coecient on turbine eciency. It nds analytical solutions for optimum degree of re-
action, maximum turbine eciency for required power and maximum eciency for constrained turbine size. Char-
acteristics measured on a 720 mm diameter turbine model conrm the validity of the analytical model. Application to a
proposed large solar chimney plant indicates that a peak turbine total-to-total eciency of around 90% is attainable,
but not necessarily over the full range of plant operating points.

2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Solar chimney literature has little to say about factors

The turbine is one of the main sub-systems of a solar
chimney power plant. Other systems are the solar col-
lector, the chimney and the generator (Fig. 1). Air he-
ated in the solar collector surrounding the chimney
enters it radially through passages between the pillars
supporting the chimney. The pillars may be airfoil-
shaped and arranged along non-radial chord lines, to act
as inlet guide vanes (Fig. 1). The typical solar chimney
turbine is of the axial ow type. It has characteristics
between those of wind turbines and gas turbines: it has
more blades than the typical 2 or 3 of wind turbines, but
not as many as gas turbines; the rotor blades are ad-
justable, like those of wind turbines, but, as in gas tur-
bines, the ow is enclosed, and the solar chimney turbine
may have radial inow inlet guide vanes. The main
function of the turbine is the ecient conversion of uid
power to shaft power. A secondary function of solar
chimney turbines is ow and output power control by
adjustment of its blade angles.
aecting eciency of the turbines, but merely assumes
various xed values of eciency, e.g., 83% (Haaf et al.,
1983), 4080% (Mullett, 1987), 80% (Schlaich, 1995),
77.0, 78.3 and 80.1% (Pasumarthi and Sherif, 1998) and
80% (Von Backstr om and Gannon, 2000). We could nd
no papers dealing with the operating characteristics of
solar chimney turbines. The objective of this paper is to
develop a simple model for the prediction of solar
chimney turbine eciency and operating characteristics,
to help in solar chimney power plant design optimisation.
2. Assumptions
The turbine is of the axial type, with radial inow
inlet guide vanes (stator blades).
The analysis proceeds as if the stator blade row also
has an axial through-ow direction.
Note that the denition of load coecient is
w DH =12U 2 where DH H1  H2 .

3. Turbine eciency

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +27-21-808-4267; fax: +27-21- Noting that DHloss is the dierence between the real
808-4958. and ideal (no-loss) stagnation enthalpy drops across the
E-mail address: twvb@ing.sun.ac.za (T.W. von Backstrom). turbine, the turbine eciency is:
0038-092X/$ - see front matter
2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.solener.2003.08.009
236 T.W. von Backstrom, A.J. Gannon / Solar Energy 76 (2004) 235241

Nomenclature

A ow area; dimensionless work rate q density

AR diuser area ratio w load coecient DH =12U 2
Cp pressure recovery coecient fP stagnation pressure loss coecient
D diameter f sum of loss coecients
H stagnation enthalpy
Subscripts
K constant
1 stator exit or rotor inlet
L loss fraction
2 rotor exit
m_ mass ow
Loss loss
P power
d diuser, design point
p pressure
e turbine exit (diuser)
R degree of reaction
i ideal (no loss)
U blade circumferential velocity
opt optimum
V absolute velocity
r rotor
W relative velocity
s static
Greek symbols t total (stagnation) or turbine
a absolute ow angle ts total to static
b relative ow angle tt total to total
D dierence u circumferential component
g eciency z axial component
/ ow coecient Vz =U

1
DH DHLoss coecients, as dened below, refer to exit relative ve-
gt 1 1 locity components (Fig. 2) and exit density:
DH DHLoss DH

fs DpsLoss =12qV12 3
Lewis (1996, p. 55) shows that for small loss the turbine
total-to-total eciency (it is based on the inlet minus the
exit total pressure) can be written in terms of a total
fr DprLoss =12qW22 4
pressure loss and an average density as:

1 The turbine diuser loss coecient is:
DptLoss =q
gtt 1 2
DH fe DpeLoss =12qV22 5

The turbine total pressure loss, DptLoss consists of stator, Substitute for the enthalpy drop in terms of the load
rotor and diuser losses. The stator and rotor blade loss coecient:

D chimney

Turbine diffuser
Turbine blade
Turbine rotor
Solar collector

Generator Inlet guide vane

Section view Top view

Fig. 1. Solar chimney turbine layout.

 T.W. von Backstrom, A.J. Gannon / Solar Energy 76 (2004) 235241 237

U VU WU
WU VU1 2 U VU
2 2
W2 1 1 V2
W1
2 2 Va
W3 Rotor blade U
VU2 -VU1 Dimensional WU VU
U
diagrams 1
1 1 1
W1 V1
2
1 1
2 Inlet guide vane
R Dimensionless
diagram Va
/2

Fig. 2. Turbine velocity diagrams.

   1
gt 1 fs V12 =2 fr W22 =2fe V22 =2 =wU 2 =2 5. Degree of reaction in solar chimney turbines
   1
1 fs V12 =U 2 fr W22 =U 2 fe V22 =U 2 =w The denition of degree of reaction is the ratio of
1 L1 6 static enthalpy drop across the rotor to static enthalpy
drop across the stage. In multi-stage machines an ad-
ditional assumption is that velocity vectors at inlet and
L is the total energy per unit mass ow not available at
exit of the stage are equal, implying that stage stagna-
the turbine diuser exit, expressed as fraction of the
tion and static enthalpy drops are equal. Then the de-
turbine output. When fe 0 ( 1), the equations give
gree of reaction, R is the ratio of the static pressure
the total-to-total (total-to-static, with no diuser) e-
drop over the rotor to the total pressure drop over the
ciency. When fe has an intermediate value, the equations
stage:
correspond to intermediate values of turbine diuser loss
coecient.
R Dhr =DH 7

It can be shown that in ideal axial turbo-machinery

4. Velocity diagrams rotors the relative total enthalpy, HR hR W 2 =2 is
conserved. The static enthalpy dierence across the rotor
Consider the velocity diagrams in Fig. 2. The fol- is then:
lowing conventions apply:
Dhr hr1  hr2 W22  W12 =2
The axial velocity component Vz is vertically up- Vz2 Wu22  Vz2  Wu12 =2
wards.
The blade velocity U is from left to right. Wu2  Wu1 Wu1 Wu2 =2 8
Velocity components parallel to the blade velocity are
positive in the direction of the blade velocity. According to the Euler turbine equation the dierence in
Flow angles are measured from the axial direction to total enthalpy across the turbine is:
a vector pointing away from the axis.
DH U Vu1  Vu2 U Wu1  Wu2 9
Flow angles to the right (left) of the axis are positive
(negative).
Write R in terms of relative, then absolute velocity
For a xed turbine rotor radius, and xed inlet guide components (also see Fig. 2):
vane height and radial location, the inlet guide vane
R Wu2  Wu1 Wu1 Wu2 =2=U Wu1  Wu2 
setting angle determines the inlet angle of the rotor rel-
ative ow. The rotor blade setting angle determines the Wu2 Wu1 =2U 10
exit angle of the rotor relative ow. In addition to the
ow and loading coecients, a third dimensionless pa- R Vu2  U Vu1  U =2U
rameter, the degree of reaction, R is required to fully
describe the dimensionless velocity diagram in Fig. 2. 1  Vu2 Vu1 =2U 11
238 T.W. von Backstrom, A.J. Gannon / Solar Energy 76 (2004) 235241

6. Loss fraction, L in terms of /, w and R 2.0

10
1.8
The following analysis extends that of Lewis (1996). 30
Substitute Eq. (9) into the denition of load coecient: 1.6

1.4
w DH =U 2 =2 U Vu1  Vu2 =U 2 =2 40 60
1.2
2Vu1  Vu2 =U 12

Reaction
1.0 50 80
83 84
Eliminate Vu1 between (11) and (12): 0.8 82
84.8
Vu2 =U 1  R  w=4 13 86
0.6 70 75
The following three relationships then follow for the 0.4 A
other circumferential components: 0.2
Wu2 =U R  w=4 14 0 20
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Load coefficient
Wu1 =U Wu2 =2  Vu2  Vu1 =U R w=4 15
Fig. 3. Turbine total-to-static eciency contours on a (w; R)
Vu1 =U 1 Wu1 =2 1  R w=4 16 map (/ 0:333, fs fr 0:05, fe 0:75).

Since Vz =U /, the following three relationships hold

for V1 , W2 and V2 : 2
86.7
V12 =U 2 Vz =U 2 Vu1 =U 2 /2 w=4 1  R2 1.8
17 1.6 B
1.4 70
W22 =U 2 Vz =U 2 Wu1 =U 2 /2 w=4 R2 18 84
Load coefficient

1.2 82 75
80
1.0
V22 =U 2 Vz =U 2 Vu2 =U 2 /2 w=4  1 R2 60
0.8
C
88
19
0.6 Constant power line
The loss fraction, L in Eq. (6) is then: = K/ (K = 0.246)
0.4
L f/2 w2 =16 w=21  R 1  R2 fs 0.2 Constraint
min = 0.333
/2 w2 =16 w=2R R2 fr /2 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
w2 =16  w=21  R 1  R2 fe g=w 20 Flow coefficient
P
Dene f as (fs fr fe ) and collect common terms: Fig. 4. Turbine total-to-static eciency contours on a (/; w)
map (R 1, fs fr 0:05, fe 0:75).
L /2 w2 =16  w=21  R 1  R2 1=w
X

f 1  Rfs 12 2R  1=wfr 21 Turbine loss can be minimised by minimising fs , fr and
fe , or by minimising their eect by minimising their in-
The loss coecients all share an inuence coecient in uence coecients, which are functions of /, w and R.
the rst term on the right of Eq. (21), but the stator and
We explore this variation of the inuence coecients of
rotor loss coecients have additional inuence coe-
the loss coecients, before we look at the eect of the
cients that are both equal to 1/2 when R 1=2, and loss coecients themselves. Assume that at a given de-
equal to zero for the stator when R 1. Figs. 3 and 4, to
sign point in terms of / and w, the loss coecients re-
be discussed in more detail later, present eciency
main constant when R changes. Find the minimum loss
contours derived from Eq. (21). fraction, L by dierentiating Eq. (21) with respect to R
and equating to zero:
X
7. Optimum R for minimum loss Ropt 1  w=4 1=2wfs  fr = f 22

The choice of R for a given combination of / and w Ropt is independent of /, but depends on w, fs and fr and
determines the shape of the velocity triangles and the fe . Fig. 3 presents optimum loss coecient lines for
relative magnitude of the stator and rotor exit velocities. various degrees of reaction, showing that wopt decreases
 T.W. von Backstrom, A.J. Gannon / Solar Energy 76 (2004) 235241 239

linearly as R increases. Design values of fs and fr are of the system imposing no turbine eciency constraints. To
the order of a few percent, but fe can vary from about meet the design power requirement at assumed e-
unity down to zero if the total-to-total eciency is ciency, the product of ow through and enthalpy drop
considered. When fe 0, and fs fr , it follows from across the turbine must have a certain xed value. The
Eq. (22) that Ropt 0:5 for all w, fs and fr . Ropt 0:5 is design point power is:
common in gas turbines when the exit kinetic energy is
Pd gd qVz ADH gd q/d UAwd 12U 2
useful.
In solar chimneys, however, it is the static pressure at gd /d wd A12qU 3 23
the turbine diuser exit that is important, as there is no
pressure recovery in the chimney, but on the contrary, This implies an additional relationship between /d and
an acceleration pressure drop (Von Backstr om and wd :
Gannon, 2000). Turbine ow area is less than chimney /d Pd =gd wd A12qU 3  24
ow area, as the turbine has hub blockage, and its outer
diameter must be less than that of the chimney to allow a To keep the analysis simple, assume / K=w, where
reasonable radius of curvature where the radial ow K /d =wd Pd =gd A12qU 3  constant. It implies that
enters the axial ow turbine (Fig. 2). Pressure recovery is power output varies slightly with eciency. Note the
possible through a turbine diuser, but the area increase / K=w line in Fig. 3. Eq. (21) then becomes:
downstream of the hub will contribute little to it, as the
ow will separate from the hub, unless it is impractically L K 2 =w3 w=16  1=21  R 1  R2 =w
X
long. With a turbine ow area of say 80% of the chimney
f 1  Rfs 1=2  1  2R=wfr 25
ow area, the area ratio, AR is 1/0.8 and the ideal
pressure recovery is, Cpi 1  1=AR2 0:36. If the For optimum L, dierentiate with respect to w and
diuser eciency is, gd 0:70 the pressure recovery equate to zero to nd:
coecient is, Cpi gd Cpi 0:70:36 0:25. Then X
fe 1  0:25 0:75. The area ratio may even be larger, w4 =2 81  2Rfr = f  1  R2 w2  24K 2 0
because due to the turbine hub blockage, only the 26
streamlines near the casing of the turbine diuser diverge
(Fig. 2) and angular momentum conservation contrib- The solution is:
utes little to the pressure recovery. If the consideration is h .X i
to maximise the total-to-static eciency, fe must be w2 8 1  2Rfr f  1  R2
equal to unity or at least close to it, and fs and fr  fe n h .X i2
and Ropt  1  w=4. Then, for small values of w (say
<1,0), Ropt > 0:75. When R 1  w=4, the turbine exit
whirl velocity is zero (Eq. (13)). When R 1, the rotor
inlet and exit whirl velocities are equal but opposite
(Eqs. (13) and (16)).
We investigate a proposed standard 160 m diameter
chimney solar plant: P 200 MW, m_ 250; 000 kg/s,
q 1:0 kg/m3 . Assume that At 15; 000 m2 , giving
Vz 16:67 m/s. Then (for gd 0:75), DH 1067 J/kg.
Choosing U 50 m/s, results in / 16:67=50 0:333
and w 1000=12502 0:8533. Then L 0:2396 and
gts 0:807 when fs fr 0:05 and fe 0:75 and
R 1:0. But from Eq. (22) the optimum R 0:753.
Then L 0:1788 and gts 0:848 (point A Fig. 3). The
eciency at R 1 is about four percentage points lower
than at the optimum R. This points to the importance of
reducing exit whirl by introducing inlet counter whirl.
8. Optimum turbine design point for required power
A common, simplied design approach is to rst
optimise the plant independently of the turbine. The
hidden assumption here is that a suitable turbine can be
designed for the resulting ow and pressure drop, with
64 1  2Rfr f  1  R2
 o0:5
 41=224K 2 27
When R 1:
X nh . X i2 o0:5
w2 8fr = f 8 fr f 34K 2 28
Then, in an ideal rotor, with fr 0 and R 1, the op-
timum is wopt 480:25 K 0:5 2:632K 0:5 and /opt K 0:5 =
480:25 K 0:5 =2:632. This implies that wopt 2:6322
/opt 480:5 /opt 6:93 /opt . Assuming that fs fr 0,
and fe 1, the minimum loss fraction is:
L K 0:5 =480:75 480:25 K 0:5 =16 0:219K 0:5 29
From the standard chimney data at the end of the pre-
vious section, K 0:284. Then, from Eq. (29)
Lmin 0:117 and gts max 0:895. For this K value, the
optimum load and ow coecients are wopt 1:40 and
/opt 0:203. Iterating until the turbine eciency con-
verges, results in: gts max 0:904 and wopt 1:28 and
/opt 0:185 at K 0:236. This shows that when the
rotor loss coecient approaches zero, a high but limited
total-to-static eciency is possible, but wopt is high,
implying a relatively low blade speed, and /opt is low
240 T.W. von Backstrom, A.J. Gannon / Solar Energy 76 (2004) 235241

implying a large diameter turbine. When fs fr 0:05 chimney rotors, values of as low as 0.03 seem feasible,
and fe 0:75 and R 1:0 : wopt 1:500 and /opt
0:164, with wopt 9:2/opt and K 0:246 (point B in Fig.
4). Then L 0:153 and gts 0:867 after iteration for gts .
The /opt value implies that Vz 8:22 m/s. It is about half
the intended value in the standard design. A low turbine
rpm, implied by a low blade speed and large diameter,
means large torque transmitted for given power. These
undesirable tendencies imply that a pre-selected chimney
design point may constrain turbine design to a xed
minimum value of /.
9. Optimum w for minimum loss at given / and R
We shall now nd the optimum value of w for xed R
and / /min . In gas turbine design this condition occurs
if the turbine diameter and speed are xed. Assume that
the loss coecients, fs , fr and fe at the design point are
independent of w, dierentiate Eq. (21) with respect to w
and equate to zero:
q
wopt 4
/2 1  R2 2R  1fr =
When R 1=2, irrespective of the value of the loss co-
ecients, then, as in Lewis (1996):
q two points: the design point, (/d ; wd ) and the point
wopt 2
4/2 1 31
(Note that Lewis (1996) uses a load coecient,
wLewis w=2.)
When R 0:5, then wopt ) 2, when / ) 0 irrespec-
tive of fe . When R 1 and fe ) 1, so that fs  fe and
fr  fe , then:
q surement was within 0.5. Gannon (2002) presents an
and so do gts  85% and gtt > 90%.
10. O-design performance
For a given system pressure drop versus ow char-
acteristic, the turbine load coecient versus ow coef-
cient characteristic determines the turbine operating
point. This point will normally not coincide with the
turbine design point. Since turbine blade loss coecients
remain low over a wide range of inlet ow angles, the
major eect of o-design ow angles is not expected to
be the change in loss coecient, but rather the amount
of work done by the turbine when the rotor relative inlet
angle changes. A reasonable assumption under these
conditions is that the stator exit ow angle, a1 and the
rotor relative exit ow angle, b2 remain constant. From
the denition of load coecient, Eq. (12) and the ve-
locity triangles:
w 2/Wu2 U  Vu1 =Vz
X
f 30 2/tan b2 1=/ 2/ tan a1
2/tan a1  tan2 b2  2 33
The ideal turbine characteristic is a straight line through
/; w 0:0; 2:0. Fig. 5 compares theoretical and
measured values measured on a 720 mm diameter model
solar chimney turbine. Fig. 6 shows that mean rotor
blade exit angles derived from experiment do indeed
vary little over the operating range. Where the angle is
virtually constant (75.2) in Fig. 6, the curve t is ex-
cellent in Fig. 5. The repeatability of ow angle mea-
wopt  2
4/2 4fr =fe 32 error analysis for the measurements on which Figs. 5

Compare Eqs. (31) and (32) the minimum loss when

fe ) 1, occurs at a lower load coecient when R 1 1.0 0 0
81 78
0 75.2
than when R 1=2, since typically 4fr =fe  1. That is
why solar chimney turbines should have R > 0:5. 0.5
As a numerical example, assume / 16:67=50
0:333 as before. When R 1 and fs fr 0:05, and
Load coefficient

0
fe 0:75, w 0:799 and the loss fraction, L is 0.248 and 0
gts 0:801 after iteration (point C in Fig. 4). However, Tip stagger angle = 72
-0.5
when using the theoretical value wopt 1:649 the opti-
mum eciency is gts 0:833, a 3% improvement. To
-1.0
calculate the total-to-total eciency, set fe 0 in the Experimental measurements
Theoretical results
above. The turbine total to-total eciency is gtt 0:933.
That is about as ecient as turbines get. Another way of -1.5
increasing turbine eciency is to reduce the blade row
loss coecients, and operate at the optimum degree of -2
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
reaction. Lewis (1996) quotes the following design pro-
Flow coefficient
le loss equation: f 0:0251 e=902 . If for exam-
ple, fs fr 0:03, and Ropt 0:790 then gts 0:858 Fig. 5. Comparison of experimental to theoretical turbine
and gtt 0:949. For the small deection angles in solar characteristics for various turbine rotor blade angles.
 T.W. von Backstrom, A.J. Gannon / Solar Energy 76 (2004) 235241 241

90
0 The derived equations show the benecial eect of
0
81 0 0 pre-whirl on turbine performance, and the constraining
80
0 78 75.2
0 eects that chimney diameter and design point power
Tip stagger angle = 72
70
0
may have on maximum attainable turbine eciency.
0
These considerations are important when making deci-
60
sions about the initial layout, sizing and design of solar
Relative exit angle

0
50 chimney turbines. The models are simple enough to in-
0 clude in solar chimney power plant optimisation studies.
40
Application to a proposed large solar chimney plant
0
30 indicates that a peak turbine total-to-total eciency
20
0 of around 90% is attainable, but not necessarily over
the full range of plant operating points.
0
10
0
0
0 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35
References
Flow coefficient

Fig. 6. Rotor blade relative exit ow angles derived from Gannon, A.J., 2002. Solar Chimney Turbine Performance.
experimental turbine characteristic. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Stellenbosch, South
Africa.
Gannon, A.J., Von Backstr om, T.W., 2003. Solar chimney
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by Gannon and Von Backstr om (2004). A follow-up
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paper will discuss the complete turbine design method- plant in Manzanares. International Journal of Solar Energy
ology. 2, 320.
Lewis, R.I., 1996. Turbomachinery Performance Analysis. John
Wiley and Sons, London.
11. Conclusions Mullett, L.B., 1987. The solar chimneyoverall eciency,
design and performance. International Journal of Ambient
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to express the inuence of each coecient on turbine ical performance of a demonstration solar chimney model
Part I: mathematical model development. International
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