Thermal Performance Analysis of a Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) Solar Collector with Fins

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

Abstract
In this study, the energy analysis of an air-cooled photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) equipped with fins was investigated. A PV panel with the same characteristics without cooling fluid was used to compare the results as the control system. A fan with air flow rate of 0.033 kg s-1 was used to create forced convection flow. In the lower part of the air channel, a plate with trapezoid fins was mounted to create turbulent flow in the air channel to increase the heat transfer coefficient between the plate and air fluid. Six temperature sensors LM35 were used to record air temperature and a computer program in MATLAB was developed to compute the theoretical performance. The results showed that the use of air flow reduces the temperature of solar cells and thus increases the PV/T output voltage by about 9% over all hours of the experiment compared to the control system (PV). The theoretical and experimental thermal efficiency of the PV/T was calculated as 0.51 and 0.47, respectively. Also, the average difference between theoretical and experimental temperature was about 8%. The maximum difference between air outlet temperature and ambient temperature in measured and predicted were 7.06 and 10.25, respectively, and the minimum differences were 1.40 and 2.97, respectively.
 

Keywords

References

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Agricultural Mechanization
Volume 4, Issue 2
November 2018
Pages 27-41

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  • Receive Date: 23 November 2019
  • Accept Date: 23 November 2019

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