Numerical study on the performance of photovoltaic thermal unit condenser with water/nanofluids as fluids medium

Pie Basalike, Wang Peng and Jili Zhang

Renewable Energy, 2022, vol. 197, issue C, 606-616

Abstract: To fully exploit the use of water/nanofluids in the photovoltaic thermal (PVT) unit condenser and further increase renewable energy resources in energy mix, the current paper numerically studies the effect of operating water/PVT unit, Al3O2-water/PVT unit and Ag-water/PVT unit on the overall performance. In the ANSYS Fluent 18, the mathematical equations related to these models were discretized by the second order upwind scheme and solved at steady state, considering the fluid inside pipe as laminar flow. The results were obtained and discussed in terms of coefficient of performance (COP), Nusselt number (Nu), specific exergy (Ein,out) and outlet flow temperature (Tout), at different nanoparticle fractions and operating conditions of both flow and weather. A higher inlet mass flow rate of nanofluids (Ag-water and Al3O2-water) was recommended both for better COP and handling nanoparticles deposition problem. In addition, due to thermal conductivity difference, the maximum COP of about 3 was achieved from PVT unit condenser with Ag-water as fluid medium. The optimum conditions of flow and weather were proposed for the operation of three considered PVT units condenser.

Keywords: PVT unit Condenser; Numerical study; Water/nanofluids; Night cold of sky; Performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:197:y:2022:i:c:p:606-616

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2022.08.009

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