Evaluation of thermo photovoltaic performance through aluminum-fueled combustor with partially porous medium and different geometric cross-sections

Abstract

Thermo photovoltaic (TPV) power generation systems have attracted a great deal of attention in the field of portable electronic devices. The high and uniform temperature of TPV combustor plays a decisive role in the improvement of system efficiency. In this study, aluminum is utilized as energy source of TVP. To model the premixed combustion of aluminum-air, an asymptotic model of flame structure including four zones of solid, liquid, and gaseous aluminum and post-flame and three asymptotic fronts of melting, evaporation, and flame is proposed. Then, the conservation equations and boundary conditions are derived and the combustion characteristics of aluminum are obtained. Combustion is evaluated for simple and porous media with trapezoidal, rectangular, triangular, and circular cross-sections. Finally, the influence of parameters on the TVP performance is assessed. The results indicated that in the medium with a porosity factor of 0.8, the total efficiency is higher than the simple medium for all cross-sections. In the medium with a porosity factor of 0.6, however, the triangular and circular cross-sections exhibit lower efficiency compared to the simple medium. In the case with a porosity factor of 0.4, only the efficiency of the channel with a trapezoidal cross-section is higher than the simple medium.