Experimental investigation on the performance of an advanced bi-fluid photovoltaic thermal solar collector system

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the effect of various mass flow rates of working fluids on the performances of the bi-fluid photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system and the integrated air-based type. The experiments were conducted for two outdoor cases, Case I and Case II. In each case, the mass flow rate of air was fixed at a value in both systems, while the mass flow rate of water was varied between two values in the bi-fluid PVT system. The observed results showed the performance of both systems can be improved by the optimum mass flow rates. The bi-fluid PVT system working with 0.1190 kgs−1 and 0.0102 kgs−1 of air and water flows has given 64.57 %, 12.64 %, and 99.33 % of thermal, electrical, and overall efficiencies, respectively. Furthermore, when the air-based was operating at the mass flow rate of 0.0446 kgs−1, the corresponding findings were 35.56 %, 12.56 %, and 70.54 % of thermal, electrical, and overall efficiencies. However, the electrical performance was also investigated for the connected PV modules. The maximum power output was 248 W and 223.7 W for Case I and Case II, respectively, as the highest values for different operating conditions. The positive results suggest the technology to be used for various usages.