Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Photovoltaic/Thermal Systems: Parameter Analysis and Determination of Optimum Flow

Bin Yan, Qiuxuan Wu (), Xiaoni Chi, Chenxi Wu, Ping Luo, Yanbin Luo and Pingliang Zeng
Additional contact information
Bin Yan: HDU-ITMO Joint Institute, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Qiuxuan Wu: HDU-ITMO Joint Institute, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Xiaoni Chi: Youngman Automotive Institute, Hangzhou Vocational & Technical College, Hangzhou 310018, China
Chenxi Wu: School of Automation, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Ping Luo: School of Automation, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Yanbin Luo: School of Automation, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Pingliang Zeng: School of Automation, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: The emergence of photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) technology has effectively solved the problem of high temperature and low electrical efficiency of photovoltaic cells, and significantly improved the utilization rate of solar energy. At present, improving the thermoelectric performance of PV/T systems is a research hotspot. The effects of operating parameters such as inlet temperature, solar radiation, ambient temperature, and coolant mass flow rate, are investigated through numerical simulations. An experimental platform is built to verify the effectiveness of the three-dimensional numerical model. It is found that when the solar radiation changes from 800 W/m 2 to 1000 W/m 2 , the increase rate in thermal efficiency will obviously slow down. When the coolant mass flow rate is increased from 60 to 320 L/h, the thermal efficiency is raised by 8.24%. For each 40 L/h increase in mass flow rate, the electrical efficiency increased by 0.047%. However, when the mass flow rate is too large, the increase in electrical and thermal efficiency gradually decreases. Orthogonal experiments and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are used to study the effects of each parameter and parameter combination on overall efficiency. The results show that ambient temperature has the greatest effect, followed by inlet temperature. Finally, the mathematical model of overall efficiency is established, and the coolant mass flow control formula is proposed. This formula can determine the optimal flow rate according to different environmental conditions, so that the system can operate under the optimal flow rate at all times and maximize the thermoelectric efficiency. Experimental results show that flow control increases the overall energy gain by 2.5% compared with the optimal constant mass flow.

Keywords: PV/T system; flow heat transfer; computational fluid dynamics; thermal efficiency; electrical efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (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)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10156/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10156/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10156-:d:889396

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().