Abstract
The thermal and electrical efficiency of a custom-designed PV/T panel cooled by forced air circulation was investigated by experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. Experiments were carried out with four different array configurations, under constant irradiation of 1100 W/m2 and 3 different air velocities (3.3 m/s, 3.9 m/s, and 4.5 m/s). The heat transfer surface area and forced air circulation are known to positively affect the total heat transfer, and therefore, it is foreseeable that an increased number of fins and higher air velocities will help maintain the electrical efficiency of the panel at higher levels. The main objective of this study is to determine the critical threshold for the abovementioned parameters as well as to show how important parameters, such as fin arrangement and consequent turbulent air flows, are for satisfying the heat removal needs. Highest efficiency was achieved with a 108 pc type 1 arrangement at 12.02% as expected. Nevertheless, while the 108 pc type 2 arrangement could maintain the electrical efficiency at 11.81%, a close level of 11.55% could be obtained with a 54 pc type 2 arrangement. Experimental results are compared with ANSYS Fluent program, and the effect of the number and arrangement of the fins on the efficiency of the panel has been shown.
Highlights
A photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collector is considered to be a solar collector combined with a photovoltaic module and produces electricity and heat at the same time
The ratio of generated electrical energy to total incoming energy is called the electrical efficiency, whereas the thermal efficiency is the ratio of net utilized thermal energy to total incident solar energy received on the PV panel
In order to achieve the necessary cooling in the cell temperature, the heat transfer surface area was increased using fins, convection heat transfer was increased using forced circulation, and different fin arrangements were tried in order to create turbulence within the air flow
Summary
A photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collector is considered to be a solar collector combined with a photovoltaic module and produces electricity and heat at the same time. There are mainly two types of PV/T collectors depending on the medium used to collect the thermal energy, air-based and water-based. PV/T air collectors are significantly advantageous than are PV/T water collectors, which require a variety of thermal collection materials depending on PV modules. Solar collectors can be used in various areas especially for drying, floor heating, and solar desalination and so on Conventional solar air collectors have inherent disadvantages in lower thermal efficiency. Wijeysundera et al [5] investigated the thermal performance of single-glazed and double-glazed multipass solar air heaters. To investigate the performance in New Delhi meteorological conditions, they investigated two types of PV modules (glass-to-plastic and glass-to-glass) and the results show that the overall performance of the hybrid thermal collector with a glass-to-glass PV module is better than with a glass-to-plastic module
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