Performance enhancement of Photovoltaic-thermal system using hybrid tubes: An assessment of thermodynamic and thermohydraulic efficiencies

Abstract

In this study, a novel hybrid tube configuration is proposed to develop an efficient photovoltaic thermal system. Subsequently, the impact of different working fluids is investigated, including ternary nanofluids and phase-change material slurries. The performance of the system is optimized by varying the geometrical parameters and working fluids. The combined impact of the hybrid tube and the working fluid is numerically investigated. Thermal, exergy, electrical, and hydraulic efficiencies of the PVT system are analyzed to ascertain the feasibility of the proposed configuration and working fluid. Compared to straight and wavy tubes, the proposed hybrid tube configuration achieves a more uniform and reduced temperature distribution. The optimised hybrid tube configuration performs significantly better than the straight tube configuration, with an improvement of 8.01%, 5.5%, and 32% in primary, exergy, and thermohydraulic efficiencies, respectively. However, compared to wavy tubes, marginally better performance is achieved coupled with a 30% reduction in pressure drop. Moreover, compared to water, the primary, exergy, and thermohydraulic efficiencies are improved by 6.3%, 1.1%, and 20%, respectively, when the optimized hybrid tube is used in conjunction with the proposed slurry. Thus, the hybrid tube design and novel slurry demonstrate high potential for photovoltaic thermal system applications.