Solar Chimney Technique as an Approach for Enhancing Thermal Performance in Hotel Buildings in Egypt

Abstract

The hotel sector consumes a large amount of energy to provide services and comfort to guests including exclusive amenities, treatment and entertainment. Most of the energy consumption in hotels is dedicated to air conditioning, heating, ventilation and cooling systems. This study aims at implementing natural ventilation passive techniques as a solution to the problem of hotels and resorts environment. The solar chimney is proposed as a natural ventilation technique as it was proven that it has a great influence on enhancing the indoor thermal performance. Previous studies on the solar chimney have been conducted; regarding the concept, modeling, methods of evaluation and performance of the solar chimney parameters. Others investigated new integration methods of solar chimney within buildings and their mathematical models. However, more research is still required on integrating solar chimney in hotel buildings and examining the relationship between the hotel design and solar chimney potentials in terms of energy saving. This research main aim is to investigate the impact of solar chimney technique on the indoor thermal performance of hotel buildings in hot arid climate in Upper Egypt, in a manner that can guide their efficient use in hotel buildings and highlight the timings throughout the year that have the best performance. This research is composed of five chapters to reach the main aim through the research methodology. the methodology starts with data collection, in which collecting data about natural ventilation and solar chimney main concept and various applications and approaches, which is presented in chapters 2 and 3. Then analytical studies for the hospitality buildings’ different classifications and for the hospitality sector on Upper Egypt, which is found in chapter 1. Also, there is another analytical study for the climatic conditions in Upper Egypt in chapter 4. After that a computational simulation is conducted on three parts presented on chapter 4 and chapter 5, the first part is to identify the best values for chimney influencing factors to reach the solar chimney best configuration case, the second part is to simulate the impact of the best case solar chimney on the hottest and coldest days. The third part is a monthly simulation to highlight the timings of best performance throughout the year. At the end, comparative analysis is conducted for the results of solar chimney CFD simulations on different timings throughout the year to determine guidelines for solar chimney efficient use in hotel buildings.