Numerical investigation and optimization of a multi-stage Tesla-valve channel based photovoltaic/thermal module

Yang Zhao, Ranxu Wang, Dan Gao, Haiping Chen and Heng Zhang

Renewable Energy, 2024, vol. 228, issue C

Abstract: As an essential form of solar energy utilization, photovoltaic/thermal modules (PV/T) have higher efficiency than solely photovoltaic or photothermal. With regard to the heat recovery issues of PV/T, a novel thermal management method by utilizing a Tesla-valve channel is proposed. Besides, the effect of channel number, Tesla-valve number, solar irradiation, water inlet velocity, as well as water inlet temperature are analyzed using a thermal-electrical-flow coupling CFD simulation. In comparison to the straight channel and zig-zag channel PV/T, reverse multi-stage Tesla-valve channel based PV/T (MSTV-PV/T) can further enhance the solar cell panel efficiency and reduce thermal stress with decreasing max and average temperature of solar cell panel by over 4.5 % and 3 %, respectively. Utilizing response surface methodology, the optimization of MSTV-PV/T performance is conducted with respect to both single and multi-objective criteria. Channel number 8 is the optimal design parameter for all optimization objectives, the maximum output thermal energy, output thermal exergy, and output electrical energy/exergy of the proposed MSTV-PV/T module can be achieved to 1376.34W, 76.74 W, and 432.86 W, respectively.

Keywords: Solar energy; Photovoltaic/thermal; CFD; Multi-stage Tesla-valve; Response surface method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148124006414
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:228:y:2024:i:c:s0960148124006414

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2024.120573

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().