Experimental Investigation of Cooling Performance Enhancement of a Photovoltaic Module Using a Phase Change Material-CuO Nanoparticles

Document Type : Research Article

Author

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kermanshah Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran

Abstract

In this work, the effect of using the mixture of a phase change material and CuO nanoparticles as a cooling agent on the performance of a photovoltaic module has been investigated experimentally. The phase change material located in a chamber at the backside of the module is cooled with spiral copper tubes. Phase change material due to absorbing a lot of heat from the surface of the module and control the heat capacitance of the system causes to raising its overall efficiency. The effect of CuO nanoparticles concentration (0.5-4% wt.) and the weight of phase change material (1-2.25 kg) on the different parameters such as the surface temperature of the photovoltaic module, increase in maximum power and cooling efficiency have been investigated. Results show that using pure phase change material significantly causes to decrease in the surface temperature of the module from 58.34 ºC to 51.7 ºC. In addition, data depicted that adding CuO nanoparticles to the pure phase change material results in increasing the cooling efficiency and the produced power. Increasing the weight of pure phase change material and the mixture of phase change material -4% CuO from 1 kg to 2.25 kg results in a decrease in the surface temperature of the photovoltaic module from 51.7 ºC to 48.1 ºC and 45 ºC to 42.9 ºC, respectively. In addition, by increasing the nanoparticles in phase change material, cooling efficiency and the produced power are increased and the highest values are 22.87% and 3.46 W attributed to the layout of using 2.25 kg phase change material and 4% CuO.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

[1]  Al-Waeli AH, Sopian K, Chaichan MT, Kazem HA, Hasan HA, Al-Shamani AN. An experimental investigation of SiC nanofluid as a base-fluid for a photovoltaic thermal PV/T system. Energy Convers Manage 2017; 142: 547-558.
[2]   Chandel S, Agarwal T. Review of cooling techniques using phase change materials for enhancing efficiency of photovoltaic power systems. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2017; 73: 1342-1351.
[3]  Kazem HA, Al-Badi HA, Al Busaidi AS, Chaichan MT. Optimum design and evaluation of hybrid solar/wind/ diesel power system for Masirah Island. Environ Dev Sustain 2017; 19(5): 1761-1778.
[4]  Popovici CG, Hudişteanu SV, Mateescu TD, Cherecheş N-C. Efficiency improvement of photovoltaic panels by using air cooled heat sinks. Energy Procedia 2016; 85: 425-432.
[5]  Emam M, Ookawara S, Ahmed M. Performance study and analysis of an inclined concentrated photovoltaic- phase change material system. Sol Energy 2017; 150: 229-245.
[6]  Kalogirou SA, Tripanagnostopoulos Y. Hybrid PV/T solar systems for domestic hot water and electricity production. Energy Convers Manage 2006; 47(18-19): 3368-3382.
[7]    Sardarabadi M, Passandideh-Fard M, Heris SZ. Experimental investigation of the effects of silica/water nanofluid on PV/T (photovoltaic thermal units). Energy 2014; 66: 264-272.
[8]    Ghadiri M, Sardarabadi M, Pasandideh-fard M, Moghadam AJ. Experimental investigation of a PVT system performance using nano ferrofluids. Energy Convers Manage 2015; 103: 468-476.
[9]   Barrau J, Rosell J, Chemisana D, Tadrist L, Ibáñez
M. Effect of a hybrid jet impingement/micro-channel cooling device on the performance of densely packed PV cells under high concentration. Sol Energy 2011; 85(11): 2655-2665.
[10]   Bahaidarah H, Subhan A, Gandhidasan P, Rehman S. Performance evaluation of a PV (photovoltaic) module by back surface water cooling for hot climatic conditions. Energy 2013; 59: 445-453.
[11]     Preet S, Bhushan B, Mahajan T. Experimental investigation of water based photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system with and without phase change material (PCM). Sol Energy 2017; 155: 1104-1120.
[12]    Klemm T, Hassabou A, Abdallah A, Andersen O. Thermal energy storage with phase change materials to increase the efficiency of solar photovoltaic modules. Energy Procedia 2017; 135: 193-202.
[13]  Karthick A, Murugavel KK, Ramanan P. Performance enhancement of a building-integrated photovoltaic module using phase change material. Energy 2018; 142:803-812.
[14]   Preet S. Water and phase change material based photovoltaic thermal management systems: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2018; 82: 791-807.
[15]   Nižetić S, Arıcı M, Bilgin F, Grubišić-Čabo F. Investigation of pork fat as potential novel phase change material for passive cooling applications in photovoltaics. J of Clean Prod 2018; 170: 1006-1016.
[16]   Su Y, Zhang Y, Shu L. Experimental study of using phase change material cooling in a solar tracking concentrated photovoltaic-thermal system. Sol Energy 2018; 159: 777-785.
[17]   Karunamurthy K, Murugumohankumar K, Suresh S. Use of CuO nano-material for the improvement of thermal conductivity and performance of low temperature energy storage system of solar pond. Digest J Nano Mater Bio Struct 2012; 7(4): 1833-1841.
[18]   Sardarabadi M, Passandideh-Fard M, Maghrebi M-J, Ghazikhani M. Experimental study of using both ZnO/ water nanofluid and phase change material (PCM) in photovoltaic thermal systems. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells 2017; 161: 62-69.
[19]   Mousavi Baegi Seyed Reza, Sadrameli Seyed Mojtaba, Designs and Builds a Cooling System to Increase the Efficiency of Photovoltaic Panels Using Changing Phase Materials. Sharif Mechanical Engineering Journal, Volume 3-23, Number 1, pp. 77-82 (2016).(in Persian)
[20]   Chandrasekar M, Suresh S, Senthilkumar T. Passive cooling of standalone flat PV module with cotton wick structures. Energy Convers Manage 2013; 71: 43-50.
[21]   Karami E, Rahimi M, Azimi N. Convective heat transfer enhancement in a pitted microchannel by stimulation of magnetic nanoparticles. Chem Eng Process 2018; 126: 156-167.
[22]   Rostami Z, Rahimi M, Azimi N. Using high-frequency ultrasound waves and nanofluid for increasing the efficiency and cooling performance of a PV module. Energy Convers Manage 2018; 160: 141-149.
[23]   Karami N, Rahimi M.  Heat transfer  enhancement in  a PV cell using Boehmite nanofluid. Energy Convers Manage 2014; 86: 275-285.
Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering
Volume 52, Issue 2
May 2020
Pages 281-296

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics