The temperature rise of photovoltaic’s cells deteriorates its conversion efficiency. The use of a phase change material (PCM) layer linked to a curved photovoltaic PV panel so-called PV-mirror to control its temperature elevation has been numerically studied. This numerical study was carried out to explore the effect of inner fins length on the thermal and electrical improvement of curved PV panel. So a numerical model of heat transfer with solid-liquid phase change has been developed to solve the Navier–Stokes and energy equations. The predicted results are validated with an available experimental and numerical data. Results shows that the use of fins improve the thermal load distribution presented on the upper front of PV/PCM system and maintained it under 42°C compared with another without fins and enhance the PV cells efficiency by more than 2%.
The temperature rises of photovoltaic's cells (PV) affects its conversion efficiency. However the use of phase change material (PCM) "RT25" layer with horizontal inner fins linked to PV panel can maintain its temperature. A numerical study of a novel proposed configuration is performed; aiming to understand the effect of fins tilt angle and its orientation on thermal regulation enhancement of PV cells. The computations are based on an iterative, finite-volume numerical procedure that incorporates an enthalpy formulation for simulation of the phase change phenomenon. The comparison between the numerical predictions and numerical and experimental data from literature shows a good agreement. This study is also carried out for various tilt angles in the range of 0° to 45° in an interval of 5° and orientation of internal fins converged or diverged. Results indicate that the fins tilt angle (α=25°) can maintain the PV cell efficiency at 14% with an average temperature of 34,5°C for 3 hours, compared with PV/PCM system with horizontal fins (α=0°) which its efficiency decrease to 12.5% from its maximal value (15%) with an average temperature of 38°C.
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