Enhancing the Performance of Photovoltaic Thermal Solar Collectors using Twisted Absorber Tubes and Nanofluids with Optimal Design Parameters

Anwer. B. Al-Aasam, Adnan Ibrahim, Kamaruzzaman Sopian, Bassam M. Abdulsahib, Mojtaba Dayer

Abstract


A Photovoltaic-Thermal-Solar-Collector (PVT) is a technology that combines the benefits of photovoltaic panels (PV) and solar-thermal-collectors. It can enhance the efficiency of PV by reducing its surface temperature while producing hot water.  The PVT's photovoltaic, thermal, and combined-photovoltaic-thermal efficiencies with parallel twisted absorber tubes and nanofluids as working fluids have been determined.  A total of 11 parallel twisted absorber riser tubes with headers were used.  The optimum header tube diameter was 51mm using Computational-Fluid-Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The utilization of twisted tubes significantly improved the photovoltaic, thermal, and combined-photovoltaic-thermal efficiencies, with the combined-photovoltaic-thermal efficiency rising from 61.2% to 84.6% at a mass-flow-rate of 0.04kg/s and solar-irradiance-level of  800W/m2.  The effect of employing nanofluids on the PVT system was investigated, with nanofluids contributing to even greater gains in combined photovoltaic-thermal efficiency, which increased from 84.6% to 88.2%.  These findings provide valuable insights into the design of high-performance fluid-based PVT systems, highlighting the potential of twisted tubes and nanofluids for enhancing system efficiency.


Keywords


PVT, Optimization, Parallel absorber tubes, Twisted tube, Nanofluid

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References


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DOI (PDF): https://doi.org/10.20508/ijrer.v13i3.14163.g8799

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