Abstract
The melting duration in the photovoltaic/phase-change material (PV/PCM) system is a crucial parameter for thermal energy management such that its improvement can realize better energy management in respect to thermal storage capabilities, thermal conditions, and the lifespan of PV modules. An innovative and efficient technique for improving the melting duration is the inclusion of an exterior metal foam layer in the PV/PCM system. For detailed investigations of utilizing different metal foam configurations in terms of their convective heat transfer coefficients, the present paper proposes a newly developed mathematical model for the PV/PCM–metal foam assembly that can readily be implemented with a wide range of operating conditions. Both computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and experimental validations proved the good accuracy of the proposed model for further applications. The present research found that the average PV cell temperature can be reduced by about 12 °C with a corresponding improvement in PCM melting duration of 127%. The addition of the metal foam is more effective at low solar radiation, ambient temperatures far below the PCM solidus temperature, and high wind speeds in nonlinear extension. With increasing of tilt angle, the PCM melting duration is linearly decreased by an average value of (13.4–25.0)% when the metal foam convective heat transfer coefficient is changed in the range of (0.5–20) W/m2.K. The present research also shows that the PCM thickness has a positive linear effect on the PCM melting duration, however, modifying the metal foam configuration from 0.5 to 20 W/m2.K has an effect on the PCM melting duration in such a way that the average PCM melting duration is doubled. This confirms the effectiveness of the inclusion of metal foam in the PV/PCM system.
Highlights
The integration of phase-change materials (PCMs) for passive thermal management of photovoltaic modules (PVs) is identified as a cost-effective and long-term approach for addressing the decline in the PV conversion efficiency at high operating temperatures
In this paper we have reported detailed investigations utilizing different metal foam configurations for improving the melting duration of PV/PCM systems for better thermal energy management under a wide range of operating conditions using a newly developed mathematical model
Both computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and experimental validations proved the good accuracy of the proposed model for further applications
Summary
The integration of phase-change materials (PCMs) for passive thermal management of photovoltaic modules (PVs) is identified as a cost-effective and long-term approach for addressing the decline in the PV conversion efficiency at high operating temperatures. In this type of thermal management, a metallic container holding a PCM is attached to the PV panel underneath so that the surplus heat is collected from the PV, allowing the PV temperature to be dropped and the collected heat to be stored as latent heat of fusion in the PCM during the melting mode. Atkin and Farid [5] reported a 12.97% higher efficiency of the PV panel with the inclusion of PCM infused graphite and finned heat sink at incident solar radiation limited to 960 W/m2
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