Numerical Analysis of Thermal, Fluid, and Electrical Performance of a Photovoltaic Thermal Collector at New Micro-Channels Geometry

Abstract

Abstract In this article, different paths (direct, spiral, and curved) for water flow in a photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system are studied, and they are compared together. The intensity of radiation to the cell surface is taken 800 W/m2, and the fluid flow is considered to be laminar in the micro-channels. The PV cell absorbing radiation is of an aluminum type. The numerical solution of the three geometries is carried out using the finite volume method using ansys-fluent software. The pressure decomposition, momentum and energy discretization, and the solution of the pressure–velocity coupling are performed based on the standard method, the second-order upwind method, and the semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations (SIMPLE) method, respectively. The convergence factor is considered to be respected and for continuity and energy equations. The results indicate that the cell surface temperature and the outlet fluid temperature decrease by increasing the Reynolds (Re) number. Moreover, electricity efficiency increases with the increased Reynolds number. The curved path has the highest electrical efficiency in comparison to other two paths. The decrease in fluid pressure of the curved path in Re = 600 is 4% and 1.3% higher than the direct and spiral paths, respectively.