INVESTIGATING BACK SURFACE COOLING SYSTEM USING PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS AND HEATSINK ON PHOTOVOLTAIC PERFORMANCE

Abstract

This research aims to improve thermal performance and compare the performance of two common crystalline PV panel types (Mono and poly). Modules with a back-cooling system were designed and numerically analyzed with SolidWorks and ANSYS-Fluent-2021-R2 for the simulation under Baghdad weather at noon. The cooling system used consists of a phase-change material, paraffin wax (RT55), with a thickness of 5 cm and a heatsink with 33 fins with heights of 10, 20, and 30 mm and thicknesses of 2, 4, and 6 mm. to select the best height of the wax 1, 3, 5, 10, 20 cm examined. The result showed that for polycrystals, the panel temperature was reduced by 8.4°C using PCM and 11.9°C using PCM-fins. Also, output power was enhanced to 200.6 W by 10.2 W, and efficiency improved by 5%. Similarly, using PCM and PCM-fins lowered the temperature of the monocrystalline by 8.3 and 12.5°C, respectively. Therefore, the output power is enhanced to 202.4 W by 10.7 W and improves the electrical efficiency by 5.2%. The results of the study showed that mono had better performance than poly. This result is acceptable and is in good agreement with previous studies.

Keywords

• Cooling System
• Heat dissipation
• Mono-Polycrystalline
• Paraffin wax
• Photovoltaic modules