Researchers from Iraq used computational fluid dynamics to simulate the operation of a 100 W panel with floor cooling. The proposed approach is reported to scale back the panel temperature by as much as 28%, with an influence improve of as much as 6.5%.
A gaggle of Iraqi scientists investigated using ground-source vitality to chill PV panels and located that this answer may lead to a big discount within the module’s working temperature.
The researchers simulated a setup with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) algorithms. CFD is a department of fluid mechanics that makes use of numerical strategies and algorithms to research issues involving fluid circulate.
“After reviewing beforehand printed scientific articles, it’s obvious that there’s a lack of analysis on utilizing cooled air from the bottom to chill PV panels,” the group mentioned. “Most earlier research have targeting using ground-cooled water for this function, which is probably not doable in lots of areas, particularly desert areas. The present examine addresses this hole by specializing in utilizing cooled air circulated by way of underground pipes to chill the photovoltaic panels.
CFD was simulated utilizing Ansys Fluent 2023 R1 software program, accounting for variables akin to axial place, turbulent vitality, axial velocity, turbulent viscosity, and turbulent kinetic vitality (TKE) manufacturing resulting from imply velocity shear. They additionally assume that the system has a gentle course of for fluid circulate and warmth switch and that the air circulate is turbulent.
“The PV panel measures 100 cm excessive and 60 cm broad, with a most energy output of 100 W. The floor space, which measures 12 m excessive, 3 m broad, and three.6 m lengthy, modeled as a rectangle. space,” the group mentioned describing the setup. “Two PVC pipes, every with a diameter of 10 cm, had been designed, buried underground, and built-in into the ground-source system to extend warmth absorption.”
The PV panel is predicated on monocrystalline silicon, a glass cowl, aluminum body, and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) encapsulant. The same system, with out floor cooling, was constructed as a reference.
The experimental setup and the management had been simulated to work for ten hours, from 8:00 to 17:00, in Kirkuk City, northern Iraq. The peak photo voltaic radiation of 950 W/m2 was recorded at midday, whereas the bottom worth, 360 W/m2, was recorded at 5:00 pm The air temperature reached a peak of 45 C at 13:00.
“The outcomes present a exceptional enchancment in PV efficiency with the implementation of the cooling system,” mentioned the scientists. “In explicit, the temperature decreased from 53.8 C to roughly 42.8 C at 13:00. This represents a big enchancment, with the temperature lowering by roughly 28% in comparison with PV- solely case.
The simulation additionally reveals that the PV-ground case constantly outperforms the PV-only case. The air-cooled configuration improves the ability era by about 6.5%, in comparison with the PV-only setup, and its most energy output is discovered at 88 W.
“At 8:00, the very best effectivity was recorded as 16.53% for the PV-ground case and 16.14% for the PV-only case. At 13:00, the effectivity decreased to fifteen.49% and 14.54% for the PV- floor and PV-only instances, respectively,” mentioned the researchers.
The outcomes are offered in “Photovoltaic panel cooling utilizing floor supply vitality: CFD simulation,” printed in Engineering Results. The analysis group was fashioned by teachers from the Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Oil, Al-Kitab University, and Northern Technical University.
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