Investigating the impact of inlet height in the solar chimney in vernacular houses on the indoor natural ventilation efficiency

Natural ventilation has always been recognized as a workable climatic technique. The solar chimney (SC), a passive architectural component in contemporary design, can considerably lower energy usage in buildings. However, there are discrepancies between the traditional and contemporary designs of natural ventilation devices, notably with regard to where the inlet is located. Modern SCs have their inlets at floor level, as opposed to conventional SCs that have their inlets at ceiling level. In order to increase the effectiveness of inactive natural ventilation, this study intends to explore the effect of inlet location on SC performance. On June 15, 2022, at 15:00 (the warmest time of the day), simulations were performed using the ANSYS FLUENT software on a hypothetical three-story building for two possible inlet locations: ceiling and floor level. The floor level inlet had a stable airflow with an average airspeed of 0.11 m/s, but the results showed that the airflow at the ceiling level inlet fluctuated with an average airspeed of 0.15 m/s. According to the data, conventional beliefs about SC efficiency might not be true, and ceiling-level inlets are more suited for achieving SC efficiency in keeping with Iranian traditional architecture.