A comprehensive numerical study on the effectiveness of a rotational-based PTC collector integrated porous foam and PV module

Abstract

Integrating Photovoltaic modules with Parabolic Trough Solar Collector (PTC) (PTC-PV) is a method boosting the operating performance of the noticed collector. The PTC-PV unit is not only able to maintain the needed thermal energy but also can provide a tremendous amount of electricity. In this study, the exergy and energy outputs of a PTC-PV unit are enhanced by integrating it with porous metal foam and moving the absorber tube rotationally. The studied cases include a PTC-PV unit, rotational PTC-PV (RPTC-PV) unit, rotational PTC-PV unit integrated with ten separate porous metal foam layers (RPTC-PV-SPF), and rotational PTC-PV unit integrated with a uniform porous metal foam layer (RPTC-PV-UPF). Because of identifying the best unit, the consequence of key factors, namely, solar radiation, inlet mass flow level, and inlet temperature on the outputs of the units, are studied respecting thermodynamic rules. Additionally, the effect of nanoparticles mass fraction, the rotational speed, and metal foam thickness on the outputs of the best unit (RPTC-PV-UPF) are evaluated. According to the results, the highest energy and exergy outputs among the simulated cases belong to the RPTC-PV-UPF unit. At the base case condition, the net energy effectiveness of the PTC-PV, RPTC-PV, RPTC-PV-SPF, and RPTC-PV-UPF units is 58.95%, 90.35%, 89.46%, and 91.42%, respectively. Also, the overall exergy efficiency of these units is 8.43%, 3.37%, 9.48%, and 11.89%, respectively. It is found that the VP-1/MWCNT is the best working fluid for the RPTC-PV-UPF unit. By declining the void fraction of MWCNT nanofluid, the overall exergy and energy performance of the system, respectively, elevates by 9.74% and 0.25%. The nanofluid-based RPTC-PV-UPF unit foam thickness of 8 mm, and rotational speed of 0.5 rad/s, has the highest performance among the studied cases from the exergy viewpoint. The energy and exergy outputs of the RPTC-PV-UPF unit at the optimum operating condition are 67.41% and 77.47% higher than that of the PTC-PV unit.