Concentrator photovoltaic thermal management using a new design of double-layer microchannel heat sink Articles uri icon

authors

  • MOHAMED, HESHAM IBRAHEM FATHI
  • Radwan, Ali
  • Ali, Abdallah Y.M.
  • Rabie, Mohammed
  • Abo-Zahhad, Essam M.
  • Ookawara, Shinichi
  • Elkady, M. F.
  • El-Shazly, A.H.

publication date

  • April 2021

start page

  • 552

end page

  • 570

volume

  • 220

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0038-092X

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1471-1257

abstract

  • The concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems commonly endure high cell temperatures, which affect their overall performance. Besides, the high cell temperature could lead to physical damages within the whole system due to the induced thermal stresses. Therefore, an efficient cooling is mandatory to achieve a higher net output power from the CPV and safe operation. The current work's main purpose is to investigate the integration of double-layered microchannel heat sink (DL-MCHS) with CPV cell as thermal management device. A three-dimensional (3D) model is presented to investigate the performance of a CPV cooled by the DL-MCHS to figure out the ability to handle the effective heat dissipation under different terrestrial conditions. The parallel flow (PF) and counter flow (CF) cooling orientations were studied. Ethanol coolant is used to cool the CPV under different concentration ratios (CR) of 5, 10, 15, and 20 suns. The results show that the temperatures remarkably decreases with the inlet flowrate is increased. The counter flow operation (CF) achieved the best temperature uniformity index T uni when the coolant mass flowrate (V̇) ranged between 200 and 1200 ml/hr. Especially at CR 5 suns, the temperature uniformity index, T uni, enhanced to 99.87% at 1200 ml/hr.

keywords

  • cpv; solar concentration ratio; double-layer microchannel heat sink; uniform; cooling