Thermal Management of Solar PV Module by Hollow Circular Fins Integrated with Phase Change Material /

Abstract

Solar PV panels are designed to generate electrical voltage when exposed to sunlight. As sunlight incident on the active area of the PV panel the temperature of the PV cell surface increases. The rising surface temperature of the PV cell leads to the reduction of output voltage which further results in the reduction of the output power of the PV module. In this study, a new type of heat sink composed of pin fins filled with phase change material (PCM) is used to optimize the thermal and electrical performance of the PV module by reducing its temperature. The proposed thermal management model is investigated both experimentally and by using numerical simulations. The thermal and electrical performances of the modified PV module were compared with the unmodified PV module using experimental data. Fins absorb heat from the rear surface of the PV panel through a conduction heat transfer and increase the heat transfer area. The PCM absorbs the heat from the PV module in the form of latent heat transfer by changing its phase. The experimental results showed a decrease of 5.18℃ in the temperature of the PV module. Resulting in increased output voltage by 0.53-Volts and the efficiency of PV-PCM was increased by 2.9%. Moreover, a detailed parametric sensitivity analysis is performed using the validated numerical model to study the effect of wind speed and angle of attack on the modified PV module integrated with PCM. The numerical results showed an increase of 0.4 m/s in wind speed decreases the temperature of the tedlar wall to 0.4196℃ and the temperature of the solar cell also reduces by the rise in the angle of attack of air from 30-90. Overall, the application of the PV-PCM solar module is effective in optimizing the output of the PV module.