Purpose

This study aim to use the finite volume method to solve differential equations related to three-dimensional simulation of a solar collector. Modeling is done using ANSYS-fluent software program. The investigation is done for a photovoltaic (PV) solar cell, with the dimension of 394 × 84 mm², which is the aluminum type and receives the constant heat flux of 800 W.m⁻². Water is also used as the working fluid, and the Reynolds number is 500.

Design/methodology/approach

In the present study, the effect of fluid flow path on the thermal, electrical and fluid flow characteristics of a PV thermal (PVT) collector is investigated. Three alternatives for flow paths, namely, direct, curved and spiral for coolant flow, are considered, and a numerical model to simulate the system performance is developed.

Findings

The results show that the highest efficiency is achieved by the solar cell with a curved fluid flow path. Additionally, it is found that the curved path’s efficiency is 0.8% and 0.5% higher than that of direct and spiral paths, respectively. Moreover, the highest pressure drop occurs in the curved microchannel route, with around 260 kPa, which is 2% and 5% more than the pressure drop of spiral and direct.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has been no study that investigates numerically heat transfer, fluid flow and electrical performance of a PV solar thermal cell, simultaneously. Moreover, the effect of the microchannel routes which are considered for water flow has not been considered by researchers so far. Taking all the mentioned points into account, in this study, numerical analysis on the effect of different microchannel paths on the performance of a PVT solar collector is carried. The investigation is conducted for the Reynolds number of 500.

中文翻译：

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在热光伏（PVT）系统中将计算流体动力学用于不同的替代方案水流路径

目的

本研究旨在使用有限体积法来求解与太阳能集热器的三维模拟相关的微分方程。建模是通过使用ANSYS的软件程序完成的。对尺寸为394×84 mm ²的光伏（PV）太阳能电池进行了研究，该电池为铝型，并接收800 Wm ^-2的恒定热通量。水也用作工作流体，雷诺数为500。

设计/方法/方法

在本研究中，研究了流体流动路径对PV热（PVT）收集器的热，电和流体流动特性的影响。考虑了流动路径的三种选择，即冷却剂流动的直接，弯曲和螺旋形，并建立了一个模拟系统性能的数值模型。

发现

结果表明，具有弯曲流体流动路径的太阳能电池可实现最高效率。另外，发现弯曲路径的效率分别比直接路径和螺旋路径的效率高0.8％和0.5％。此外，最高的压降发生在弯曲的微通道路径中，约为260 kPa，比螺旋形和直接压降分别高2％和5％。

创意/价值

据作者所知，还没有研究同时研究PV太阳能热电池的传热，流体流动和电性能。此外，到目前为止，研究人员尚未考虑过考虑用于水流的微通道路线的影响。考虑到所有上述要点，在这项研究中，对不同的微通道路径对PVT太阳能集热器性能的影响进行了数值分析。该调查是针对雷诺数500进行的。