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Rakesh Khanal

Rakesh Khanal photo

BE (Mech., KU, Nepal), MS (Mech., SIUE, USA)
Postgraduate Research Student
Natural convection research group



School of Civil Engineering, Room 360
Phone: +61 2 9351 5155
Fax: +61 2 9351 3343
Email:

Research project - Buoyancy induced convective flow in a solar chimney for natural ventilation

Supervisor: A/Prof Chengwang Lei
Associate Supervisor: Dr Federico Maggi

The interest in natural convection research has been stimulated by its vast array of applications often encountered in nature and industrial and domestic systems such as cooling of electronic components, heat exchangers, and passive heating, cooling and ventilation of buildings etc. Natural ventilation is an important sustainable building design strategy which is known to mankind for centuries, and has attracted a strong growing interest because of its potential advantages over mechanical ventilation systems in terms of energy requirement, economic and environmental benefits. Solar chimney attached to a building serves as an excellent ventilation means that relies only on a natural driving force, i.e. the energy from the Sun. Australia has great potential for applying such passive ventilation design since on average, Australia receives more solar radiation per square meter than any other continent (CSIRO, 2010). The thermo-fluid phenomena involved in such passive system is very complex and has not been fully understood. This will be the focus of the research project.

Publications

Journal papers

  • Khanal, R. and C. Lei, A scaling investigation of the convective flow in a solar chimney for natural ventilation, submitted. Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow (29/01/12).
  • Khanal, R. and C. Lei, Flow reversal effects on buoyancy induced air flow in a solar chimney, Solar Energy 86 (9) (2012) 2783-2794.
  • Khanal, R. and C. Lei, A numerical investigation of the ventilation performance of a solar chimney, ANZIAM J. 52 (2011) C899-C913.
  • Khanal, R. and C. Lei, Solar chimney-a passive strategy for natural ventilation, Energy and Buildings 43 (8) (2011) 1811-1819.

Conference papers

  • Khanal, R. and C. Lei, Effects of an inclined passive wall on buoyancy induced ventilation in a solar chimney, Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Heat and Mass Transfer Conference, 2011, pp. 4 1-4.6.
  • Lei, C. and R. Khanal, A scaling prediction of ventilation performance of a soalr chimney, Proceeding of The 9th Australasian Heat and Mass Transfer Conference, 2011, pp.34.1-34.8.

Teaching & Learning

  • CIVL2611 Fluid Mechanics - Inviscid Flow
  • CIVL5669 Applied Fluid Engineering Computing
  • CIVL4615: Water Resources and Hydrology