Solar chimney is a reliable renewable energy system that enhances the natural ventilation to reduce the energy consumption in buildings. Under the fact that previous optimization designs usually ignore the external wind, the impacts of external wind on the optimum designing parameters are then investigated. It is confirmed that external wind could affect its optimum designing parameters, which are different from those previously obtained value in the literature without considering the external wind. For the analysed wall solar chimney, it was known that previously obtained optimal cavity depth of 0.2–0.3 m is no longer applicable under the external wind, and the optimal value rises to 0.4–0.5 m, while the same applies to inlet height/area. Solar chimney performance is enhanced under the external wind, which is not only because of the incoming wind flow from the room opening but also the reduced air resistance. It was observed that increased solar intensity shows limited influences on the overall airflow characteristics. Solar chimney performance also presented a generally enhanced trend under a low external wind speed, but a strong wind could dominate its performance with limited fluctuation even though the wind angle is higher as 45°. It was known that the airflow rates through the solar chimney are largely hampered with a small cavity depth (i.e., smaller than 0.2 m) and inlet height under the external wind. And the airflow profiles are less affected when both of cavity depth and inlet height are bigger than 0.2 m. The obtained research outcomes could provide a technical guide on the optimization design of solar chimney in buildings.

太阳能烟囱是一种可靠的可再生能源系统，可增强自然通风以减少建筑物的能耗。在以前的优化设计通常忽略外部风这一事实的基础上，然后研究了外部风对最佳设计参数的影响。可以确定的是，外部风可能会影响其最佳设计参数，这与先前文献中未考虑外部风的值不同。对于已分析的壁太阳能烟囱，已知先前获得的最佳腔深度0.2–0.3 m不再适用于外部风，并且最佳值升至0.4–0.5 m，而进口高度/面积也是如此。在外部风的作用下，太阳能烟囱的性能得以提高，这不仅是因为从房间开口进入的风，还因为空气阻力减小了。观察到增加的太阳光强度对整体气流特性的影响有限。在较低的外部风速下，太阳烟囱的性能也呈现出总体上增强的趋势，但是即使风向角大于45°，强风也可以以有限的波动主导其性能。已知通过太阳烟囱的气流速率在较小的腔体深度（即小于0.2 m）和外部风下的入口高度的情况下受到很大的阻碍。当型腔深度和进口高度都大于0.2 m时，气流分布受到的影响较小。获得的研究成果可为建筑物太阳能烟囱的优化设计提供技术指导。