Evaluation of Heat Transfer Performance Depending on Semicircular Turbulence Promoter Shape Conditions and Flow Conditions in the Air-Type PV/T Collector

Abstract

Air-type photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) collectors have a lower heat recovery rate than liquid-type collectors. Therefore, in this study, semicircular turbulence promoters were attached to the back of the PV cell to improve the heat recovery rate. Based on computational fluid dynamics, the heat-transfer performance and pressure drop were evaluated by changing the Reynolds number (Re) and semicircular turbulence promoter shape conditions. The turbulence promoter shape conditions include the relative height and relative pitch of the turbulence promoter. In addition, the increasing ratio, which means an increase in height of the turbulence promoter in the direction of flowing air, the length of the turbulence promoter, and the distance between the turbulence promoters were considered as design parameters. Consequently, the heat transfer performance increased with a decrease in relative height of turbulence promoter, while the pressure drop increased with an increase in relative height of turbulence promoter. Also, both the heat transfer performance and pressure drop show better performance as the increasing ratio of turbulence promoter decreased. The thermos-hydraulic performance parameter considering both the heat transfer performance and pressure drop presented the maximum value of 1.92 for the relative height of 0.02, increasing ratio of 1.