Identification of a different design of a photovoltaic thermal collector based on fuzzy logic control and the ARMAX model

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of absorber design on the performance of a water-based photovoltaic thermal collector (PVT). In this regard, three different absorber designs with the same pipe diameter and length were tested and compared experimentally in Cairo, Egypt, during summer 2021. Furthermore, artificial intelligence techniques were used to create a model to identify the PVT system and define the input–output relationship in state space representation. This is to get a more thorough understanding and deeper evaluation of the PVT performance with various absorber designs to achieve the best possible system performance under varied operating situations and weather. The fuzzy logic control is examined by Autoregression Moving Average using an external input model (ARMAX), which relies on the autoregression moving average to achieve system performance. According to the study's findings, at a maximum water flow rate of 3 L/min, the proposed PVT system can convert solar energy with an overall efficiency of 69.6 %, 64.6 %, and 63.5 %, respectively, with a pressure loss of about 29.5 kPa, 29.33 kPa, and 24.79 kPa for absorbers A, B, and C. Furthermore, the challenging suggested fuzzy control system for the PVT system provides knowledge to comprehend the system complexity since the connection is formed by connecting 5 inputs with 3 outputs through its representation in the state space representation.