Beyond the combustion chamber: Heat transfer and its impact on micro-thermophotovoltaic systems performance

Éliton Fontana, Lucas Battiston, Rosivaldo G.A. Oliveira, Claudia A. Capeletto and Luiz F.L. Luz

Energy, 2022, vol. 239, issue PC

Abstract: Conversion of thermal radiation into electrical current in thermophotovoltaic devices is directly influenced by the heat transfer, since the cell efficiency depends on the temperature. For micro-scale devices, heat management is yet more important due to the proximity between the components. A detailed study in these systems needs to considers the presence of wavelength-selective optical filters, used to reflect undesired radiation. In this study, we propose a model where the dependence of the physical parameter with the radiation wavelength is taken into account through a discretization of the radiation spectrum into several bands and estimation of average values. By coupling this procedure with a computational fluid dynamics solver, the cell efficiency as a function of geometrical and operational parameters can be estimated. The results indicate the existence of an optimal emitter/cell distance, depending on the emitter temperature and the heat transfer coefficient between the cell and the external medium. A secondary cooling mechanism, the air flow between the emitter and the filter, can also help to reduce the cell temperature. While the emitter average temperature has a strong impact on the cell efficiency, the temperature distribution in the emitter surface has no significant influence, allowing the use of average values.

Keywords: Thermophotovoltaic; Spectral distribution; Radiative heat transfer; Computational fluid dynamics; Discrete ordinates model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:239:y:2022:i:pc:s0360544221024324

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.122184

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