Solar Chimney: Buoyancy Force — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationDescriptionThis project uses ANSYS Fluent to simulate buoyancy-driven airflow in a solar chimney, a passive ventilation technology central to sustainable building design. A solar chimney works without any mechanical energy: solar energy absorbed at the chimney surface heats the adjacent air, and the resulting buoyancy — the stack effect — drives air up the vertical channel and pulls fresh air through the building. This module focuses on that buoyancy force as the engine of the whole system, examining how heat applied at the chimney surface sets the air in motion and sustains natural ventilation. Within the Renewable Energy: Beginner CFD Training Package, it follows the basic natural-convection chimney case, building toward a fuller treatment of how solar heating governs chimney performance.MethodologyThe setup begins with a meshing strategy that resolves both the large-scale chimney structure and the finer detail of the airflow channel. The energy equation is activated to capture the temperature field, and gravity is included so that the density differences produced by the heating drive the buoyant flow — the core mechanism of the simulation. The solar energy input is represented on the chimney surface to model the heat that sets the air in motion, together with ambient atmospheric conditions and pressure boundaries that reproduce natural ventilation. Turbulence, heat-transfer, and buoyancy models are selected to suit a low-speed, buoyancy-driven flow rather than a forced one. The setup also lends itself to studying how the level of heat input affects performance, by varying the solar intensity and examining the chimney under different operating conditions.AnalysisPost-processing focuses on the temperature contours, which reveal the thermal stratification and heat distribution within the chimney, and the velocity vector fields, which show how effectively the buoyancy-driven ventilation performs. Linking heat input to performance, the results show how changes in solar intensity influence the airflow rate and temperature distribution, and how the chimney behaves under different operating conditions. From these, ventilation rates and thermal efficiency can be evaluated across configurations, and the insight used to refine key design parameters such as chimney height, width, and inclination angle. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up a buoyancy-driven solar chimney simulation in ANSYS Fluent, interpret the temperature and velocity fields to assess ventilation performance, and apply those insights to the design of solar chimneys and similar passive systems for sustainable, energy-efficient buildings.

DescriptionThis project uses ANSYS Fluent to simulate natural convection in a solar chimney, a passive solar system central to renewable energy and sustainable building engineering. Solar chimneys use buoyancy-driven airflow, generated by solar heating of an absorber surface, to drive natural ventilation and passive cooling in buildings without mechanical energy input. This simulation examines how heat absorbed at the chimney surface drives air movement through the vertical channel.MethodologyThe solar chimney geometry is built in DesignModeler and meshed with a structured grid of 510,000 cells, refined in critical flow regions for accuracy. The Fluent setup activates the energy equation to capture temperature changes and includes gravity effects to model buoyancy-driven flow, with a heat flux of 55 W/m² applied at the absorber surface to represent solar heating.ConclusionResults include temperature, velocity, and pressure contours along with streamlines showing air circulation patterns within the chimney. The mass flow rate at 0.5 m height is reported at 0.128 kg/m³, characterizing the strength of the buoyancy-driven flow. These findings support the design and evaluation of solar chimneys for passive building ventilation, offering insight relevant to sustainable architecture, HVAC optimization, and renewable energy integration in energy-efficient buildings.

DescriptionThis project simulates a parabolic trough reflector using ANSYS Fluent. A parabolic trough reflector is a type of solar energy collector — a cornerstone technology of concentrated solar power (CSP) — consisting of a long, parabolic mirror that focuses incoming sunlight onto a receiver tube positioned along the focal line of the parabola. The concentrated solar energy heats a working fluid flowing through the tube, which can then be used to generate steam and, in turn, produce electricity via a turbine.The geometry was created in SpaceClaim, modeling a 3 m long section of the system. It was then meshed in ANSYS Meshing using polyhedral elements, with a total count of 1,330,520.MethodologyTo simulate the problem, the Discrete Ordinates (DO) radiation model was employed together with a laminar flow model. Because the installation is located in Egypt, the longitude, latitude, and time zone were set according to the site's real geographic data so that the solar load could be represented accurately.ResultsWater enters the tube at 25 °C, with the ambient temperature also set to 25 °C; consequently, solar radiation is the only mechanism available to raise the water temperature. The water flows at a velocity of 0.1 m/s, and at the simulated time the solar irradiation is 968 W/m². The software reports an outlet temperature of 26.45 °C, corresponding to a rise of roughly 1.5 °C along the tube.The contours clearly show how the parabolic reflector concentrates most of the incoming irradiation onto the receiver tube. In addition, the reflector plate surface reaches a temperature of 36 °C.

Parabolic Solar Collector — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationDescriptionWelcome to the Parabolic Solar Collector CFD Simulation module. This project explores concentrated solar power using ANSYS Fluent, focusing on how a parabolic solar collector captures and converts solar energy into useful heat. A parabolic collector uses a curved reflector to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver tube running along its focal line; the concentrated energy heats the tube wall, which in turn transfers heat to the working fluid flowing through it. The essential components are the reflector, the receiver tube, and the working fluid, and the key physics is the convective heat transfer between the heated tube wall and the fluid inside. Within the Renewable Energy: Beginner CFD Training Package, this project opens the solar-thermal collector group, introducing concentrated solar heat capture and fluid heating in a receiver tube.MethodologyThe setup begins with a meshing strategy that captures both the complex parabolic reflector shape and the cylindrical receiver tube accurately. The appropriate physical models are then selected — turbulence, heat transfer, and radiation models suited to a solar-thermal application. The boundary conditions define the physics of the collector: a solar heat flux is applied to the receiver tube surface based on the solar concentration factor to represent the concentrated sunlight, while the fluid inlet and outlet conditions set the flow rate, temperature, and pressure of the working fluid entering and leaving the collector. Together these capture how the concentrated solar energy is absorbed at the tube wall and carried away by the fluid.AnalysisPost-processing focuses on the temperature and flow behavior within the collector. Temperature contours reveal how heat is distributed along the length of the receiver tube, and the thermal boundary layer is examined for its influence on heat-transfer efficiency. Velocity profiles in the receiver tube reveal the fluid flow patterns, and the effect of turbulence on enhancing convective heat transfer is assessed. From these results the overall thermal efficiency can be quantified, and the insight used to refine key design parameters such as receiver-tube diameter, reflector shape, and flow rate. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up a solar-thermal collector simulation in ANSYS Fluent, apply concentrated solar heat flux and fluid boundary conditions, interpret the temperature and flow fields, and apply those insights to the design of parabolic-trough systems for solar power plants and thermal energy storage.

Conical Solar Collector CFD Simulation in ANSYS FluentIntroductionSolar energy represents the largest available energy source in the world, offering a clean, inexpensive, and virtually inexhaustible resource. Solar water heaters operate by absorbing solar energy through collector plates, with heating efficiency varying depending on the collector type; the heated water is typically stored in a double-walled, thermally insulated reservoir capable of maintaining temperature for up to three days. This project simulates heat transfer within a conical solar collector containing water, using ANSYS Fluent to analyze how the collector absorbs sunlight and warms the water inside its tank. The computational domain consists of a cubic air region with a velocity-inlet (1 m/s) and a pressure outlet, along with the conical collector itself, which includes a water inlet (0.01 m/s) and a pressure outlet, and features a glass layer and a steel layer to minimize convective heat loss.Geometry and MeshThe geometry, comprising the fluid domain and the conical solar collector, was designed in SpaceClaim and meshed in ANSYS Meshing, resulting in an unstructured mesh totaling 2,948,101 elements.MethodologyThe energy equation and a radiation model, using the solar ray tracing method combined with the Discrete Ordinates (DO) model, were activated to capture solar heating effects within the collector. Fluid flow behavior was resolved using the k-epsilon turbulence model with standard wall functions.Results and ConclusionContours of velocity, temperature, and streamlines were obtained to characterize the thermal and flow behavior within the collector. The average temperature of the collector walls reaches 308.67 K, while water entering the collector at 298.15 K is progressively heated to an outlet temperature of 306.8 K. The total heat transfer through the collector wall was calculated as 773 W, confirming the effectiveness of the conical design in capturing solar radiation and transferring thermal energy to the circulating water.

DescriptionThis project simulates a solar collector equipped with flat micro-heat pipe arrays (FMHPA) using ANSYS Fluent, a renewable energy technology that captures solar heat and transports it via an internal working fluid rather than through direct fluid heating alone. The collector sits inside a parabolic computational zone representing the surrounding air environment, and its structure is layered: an outer cylindrical glass surface absorbs solar radiation, an air gap beneath it channels that captured heat inward, and rows of micro-scale, square-cross-section pipes carry the working fluid that ultimately delivers the heat out of the system. The working fluid picks up heat and vaporizes in the initial section, the evaporation zone, then travels to the far end of the collector where it meets a heat exchanger airflow, loses its heat, and condenses again in the condensation zone. The 3D geometry, spanning the outdoor environment, glass layers, air gap, and FMHPA pipes, is built in Design Modeler and meshed in ANSYS Meshing with a structured grid of 153,680 cells.MethodologyTurbulence is resolved with the standard k-epsilon model using Menter-Lechner near-wall treatment, and the energy equation is active throughout. Solar heating is captured through the Solar Ray Tracing radiation model, with both direct and diffuse irradiation computed via the solar calculator based on the collector's geographic coordinates, orientation, and the specified date and time of the simulated exposure. The simulation is unsteady and pressure-based, with gravity included at standard acceleration. The working fluid enters through a mass flow inlet at 0.01088 kg/s and 126.2°C, and exits through a pressure outlet at 0 Pa gauge, with both boundaries participating in solar ray tracing; inner walls are coupled and opaque, while outer walls are set to zero heat flux and also opaque. Pressure-velocity coupling uses the Coupled scheme, with second-order discretization for pressure, momentum, and energy, and first-order upwind for the turbulence quantities, initialized using the hybrid method.AnalysisThe resulting 2D and 3D temperature, pressure, and velocity contours trace the working fluid's thermal cycle through the collector: temperature rises in the evaporation zone as the fluid absorbs heat transmitted through the glass layer and air gap from solar radiation, then falls in the condensation zone as that same fluid gives up its heat to the external heat exchanger airflow. This temperature progression confirms the collector is successfully transporting solar heat from the absorbing outer layer into a usable thermal output at the condensation end,

Solar Water Heater with PCM Thermal Storage (Solidification & Melting) — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationDescriptionPhase change materials (PCMs) store and release large amounts of energy as they melt and freeze over a nearly constant temperature range — the latent heat of the phase change. That makes them a powerful, self-regulating way to store thermal energy, and they've become especially popular for solar applications, where heat is available intermittently and needs to be banked for later. This project uses ANSYS Fluent to study a solar water heater that uses encapsulated PCM in its storage tank, modeling how the material melts and solidifies as it charges and discharges heat — a modern approach to improving solar thermal storage. Within the Renewable Energy: Beginner CFD Training Package, this project introduces thermal storage through phase change, adding latent-heat storage to the solar-thermal techniques built earlier in the package.MethodologyThe geometry, built in Design Modeler, is the annular chamber between two coaxial tubes, with the space between them filled with PCM. It's meshed in ANSYS Meshing with an unstructured grid of 5,803 cells. The PCM region's inner wall is held at a fixed temperature of 603.3 K with a thickness of 0.0015 m, driving heat into the material, while the outer wall is set adiabatic so the study isolates the PCM's thermal response. The simulation activates the energy equation to resolve the temperature field, and the core physics is handled by Fluent's Solidification and Melting model, which tracks the PCM changing phase between solid and liquid as the temperature varies inside the storage region. The Boussinesq model captures the buoyancy effects from density changes with temperature — the natural convection that develops in the molten PCM and strongly influences how heat spreads. Setting up the phase-change model requires defining the solidus and liquidus temperatures and the latent heat of melting for the material. The project is framed to investigate several factors: the effect of the PCM's melting/freezing temperature, the effect of the PCM volume, and a comparison against a tank with no PCM at all.AnalysisAt the end of the solution, you generate contours of temperature, velocity, pressure, and liquid volume fraction. The results show full consistency between the temperature field and the liquid fraction: as the PCM heats up under the inner-wall boundary condition, it melts and the liquid fraction rises, and as it cools, the phase change reverses and the material solidifies. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up a phase-change simulation using the Solidification and Melting model, apply the Boussinesq approximation for buoyancy-driven convection in a melting material, define the thermophysical parameters that govern phase change, and interpret coupled temperature and liquid-fraction results to evaluate a PCM-based thermal storage design.

Heller Dry Cooling Tower — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationDescriptionThis project simulates the airflow and heat transfer inside a Heller-type dry cooling tower — the indirect cooling system used in thermal power plants to reject heat from the working fluid (water) to ambient air without evaporative water loss. After leaving the condensers, the hot water is pumped through a ring of air-cooled heat exchangers; the tower draws cooling air through them by natural draft, created by the density difference between the warm air inside the tower and the cooler air outside. The study captures the core physics that governs tower performance — the temperature driving force: the larger the gap between the working fluid and the ambient air, the stronger the natural draft and the better the cooling. This is also why these towers lose efficiency in summer, as a rising ambient temperature shrinks the driving force and forces the plant to cut power output and increase water consumption to maintain cooling. Within the Renewable Energy: Beginner CFD Training Package, this project covers heat rejection in a power-plant context, applying buoyancy-driven flow to a large-scale natural-draft system.MethodologyThe model includes the cooling tower, the heat-exchanger (radiator) ring, the flow domain, and the air inlet, built and meshed in GAMBIT with an unstructured mesh of 1,343,988 cells. The case is solved steady with a pressure-based solver, with gravity enabled at −9.81 m/s² in the Y direction — essential, since the natural draft is entirely buoyancy-driven. Turbulence uses the standard k-ε model with standard wall functions, and the energy equation is on. The boundary conditions reproduce the natural-draft setup: the inlet is a pressure inlet at 0 Pa gauge total pressure normal to the boundary; the outlet is a pressure outlet at 0 Pa gauge with a backflow temperature of 303 K; the radiator (heat exchanger) is modeled as a heated surface at 318 K with a heat generation rate of 14,861.52 W/m³ and its shadow face at 313 K; and the walls are stationary with zero heat flux. The solution uses SIMPLE pressure–velocity coupling with first-order upwind discretization for momentum, energy, and turbulence (standard scheme for pressure and density) and standard initialization at 303 K.AnalysisThe results provide contours of velocity, pressure, and temperature along with flow streamlines through the tower. Together they reveal how air is drawn in through the heat exchangers, heats up, and rises through the tower — and how the temperature field across the radiator ring sets the cooling capacity available to the plant. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up a buoyancy-driven natural-draft flow, represent a heat-exchanger ring with a heated radiator surface and heat generation rate, configure a steady pressure-based solver with the energy equation, and interpret cooling-tower performance from the temperature and streamline fields.

Geothermal Reservoir with U-Tube Downhole Heat Exchanger — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationDescriptionThis project simulates heat extraction from a geothermal reservoir using a single U-tube Downhole Heat Exchanger (DHE) — a U-shaped pipe set in a wellbore through which a working fluid circulates to draw heat out of the ground. It's a strong study in natural-convection-driven conjugate heat transfer, where the heat path runs from the surrounding ground, through the borehole fluid, and into the circulating tube water. Within the Renewable Energy: Beginner CFD Training Package, this project introduces a completely different energy source — geothermal heat drawn from the earth — bringing subsurface flow and coupled solid–fluid heat transfer into the package.MethodologyThe model is built from three coupled parts — the U-tube, the borehole, and the ambient geothermal reservoir — and is a scaled version of a real field case (which sits about 200 m underground). Here the ground zone and U-tube are scaled to 6 m and 3.2 m depth, with a 0.0875 m tube diameter inside a 0.35 m borehole, all within a 3 m ground cylinder. The geometry is built in Design Modeler and meshed in ANSYS Meshing as a polyhedral mesh of roughly 1.75 million cells. The physics centers on free (natural) convection: the solid ground temperature is set as a linear function of depth using a Named Expression, so the borehole heats from the bottom up. Gravity is enabled, and water's thermal conductivity and heat capacity are defined as temperature-dependent via the polynomial method — the buoyancy that drives the whole problem depends on getting these property variations right. Turbulence uses the Realizable k-ε model with standard wall functions, and the flow is solved steady.AnalysisThe results provide temperature and pressure contours plus velocity vectors for both the tube and borehole zones. Convective heat transfer raises the tube outlet temperature to 305.47 K. The velocity vectors reveal the mechanism clearly — a vortex forms at the bottom of the hole, intensifying turbulence and heat transfer; water near the hot wall warms, loses density, and rises, then cools and sinks, completing the natural-convection loop that feeds heat into the tube. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up buoyancy-driven natural convection, define depth-dependent solid temperatures with Named Expressions, model temperature-dependent fluid properties, and run a coupled solid–fluid heat-exchange case.

DescriptionThis project investigates the airflow over a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) using ANSYS Fluent, with the aim of studying the velocity and pressure distribution across the blade surfaces and body. As the dominant technology in modern wind power, the HAWT is a cornerstone of renewable energy engineering, where analyzing blade aerodynamics is essential to maximizing the energy captured from the wind.The 3D model was created in SOLIDWORKS and imported into Design Modeler. The turbine consists of three blades, a rotary axis, and a surrounding flow domain. Meshing was performed in ANSYS Meshing using a structured grid of 4,270,222 elements.MethodologyThe simulation aims to examine the effect of the wind on the turbine blades and to calculate the drag and lift forces acting on the blade surfaces. The blades rotate about the horizontal axis at a rotational speed of 72 rad/s, while the air surrounding them is treated as stationary.Using the Multiple Reference Frame (MRF) method, the blades are held fixed and the air region around them is assigned a rotating frame turning at the same 72 rad/s about the y-axis. Because this is an external-flow problem, the k-omega SST model is used; this hybrid formulation blends the k-omega model in the near-wall regions with the k-epsilon model in the free stream beyond the boundary layer. Air enters the domain at a velocity of 15 m/s and exits through a pressure-outlet boundary at atmospheric pressure.ConclusionOn completion of the solution, contours of velocity, streamlines, and velocity vectors were obtained. The velocity contour clearly reveals the radial distribution of the airflow produced by the rotating blades, while the velocity vectors near the blade surfaces show, in detail, the interaction between the wind and the turbine blade. Together, these results illustrate how the blade extracts energy from the incoming wind — the fundamental aerodynamic behavior that governs the performance of a wind turbine in renewable energy applications.