Performance of Concentrated Photovoltaic Cells Using Various Microchannel Heat Sink Designs

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Radwan ◽  
Mahmoud Ahmed ◽  
Shinichi Ookawara
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cell ◽  
Heat Sink ◽  
Single Layer ◽  
Parallel Flow ◽  
Microchannel Heat Sink ◽  
Temperature Uniformity ◽  
Pumping Power ◽  
Cell Temperature ◽  
Counter Flow ◽  
Cooling Technique

The photovoltaic output power is directly proportional to the solar radiation and inversely with the cell temperature. The higher the photovoltaic temperature is, the lower the electrical efficiency is with possible damage to the cell. To improve the electrical efficiency and to avoid the possible damage, a concentrating PV system associated with an effective cooling technique is of great importance. In the present study, a new cooling technique for concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems was introduced using various designs of micro-channel heat sinks. The suggested configurations included parallel flow, counter flow single and double layer micro-channels, and single layer flat micro-channel integrated with CPV system. A comprehensive three-dimensional thermo-fluid model for photovoltaic layers integrated with microchannel heat sink was developed. The model was simulated numerically to estimate the solar cell temperature. The numerical results were validated with the available experimental and numerical results. In the meantime, the effects of different operational parameters were investigated such as solar concentration ratio and cooling mass flow rate. Performance analysis of CPV using different microchannel configurations was implemented to determine the average and local solar cell temperature, pumping power, and temperature uniformity. Results indicated that the use of microchannel heat sink was a very effective cooling technique which highly attained temperature uniformity, viz., eliminated the hot spots formation with a significant reduction in the average temperature of CPV. The single layer parallel flow achieved the minimum solar cell temperature while the counter flow attained the most uniform temperature distribution compared with other configurations. Furthermore, the double layer parallel flow microchannel attained the minimum pumping power for a given cooling mass flow rate.

Performance Evaluation of Concentrated Photovoltaic System Using a Microchannel Heat Sink

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Radwan ◽  
Mahmoud Ahmed ◽  
Shinichi Ookawara
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cell ◽  
Mass Flow Rate ◽  
Double Layer ◽  
Mass Flow ◽  
Flow Rate ◽  
Heat Sink ◽  
Single Layer ◽  
Microchannel Heat Sink ◽  
Pumping Power ◽  
Cell Temperature

The high incident heat flux on the concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system causes a significant increase in the cell temperature and thus reduces the system efficiency. Therefore, using an efficient cooling technique is of great importance for those systems. In the present study, a new technology for concentrated photovoltaic systems is introduced using a truncated-double layer microchannel heat sink. A comprehensive three-dimensional thermo-fluid model for the photovoltaic layers integrated with a microchannel heat sink was developed. The proposed model was simulated numerically to estimate the solar cell temperature, temperature uniformity, cooling system pumping power, electrical efficiency and thermal efficiency of the CPV system. The numerical results were validated with the available experimental, analytical and numerical results in the literature. In the designed heat sink, various design parameters are investigated such as the truncation length, cooling mass flow rate, concentration ratio, and converging width ratio of the flow channel. Results indicate that increasing the truncated length leads to an increase of solar cell temperature at a constant coolant mass flow rate. The cell temperature varies between 80.1°C and 146.5°C as the truncation length ratio increases from 0 (i.e. single layer microchannel) to 1 respectively at a concentration ratio (CR) of 40 and a cooling mass flow rate (ṁ) of 26.6 g/min. Using the double layer microchannel reduces the consumed pumping power at the same total mass flow rate compared to the single layer microchannel. The Double layer configuration with a truncation length ratio (l/lsc) equal to unity achieves a lower pumping power and solar cell temperature uniformity in comparison to the single layer microchannel.

Performance of Concentrator Photovoltaic Systems Integrated With Double Layer Microchannel Heat Sink

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Radwan ◽  
Mohamed M. Awad ◽  
Shinichi Ookawara ◽  
Mahmoud Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cell ◽  
Double Layer ◽  
Heat Sink ◽  
Flow Boiling ◽  
Microchannel Heat Sink ◽  
Temperature Uniformity ◽  
Liquid Cooling ◽  
Cell Temperature ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Phase Liquid

Abstract In this study, a new design of double layer microchannel heat sink (DL-MCHS) has been monolithically fabricated using 3D metal printer and experimentally examined as a heat sink for concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems. Single phase liquid cooling using ethanol and flow boiling cooling using NOVEC-7000 coolant in the designed DL-MCHS are experimentally compared. The results proved that using the flow boiling cooling technique for the CPV systems attained a lower solar cell temperature with high temperature uniformity. In more details, flow boiling in counterflow (CF) operated DL-MCHS, attained a very low solar cell temperature close to the NOVEC-7000 boiling point with temperature uniformity of 0.2 °C over a wide range of coolant flow rate from 25–250 ml/hr.

Performance Analysis of Concentrator Photovoltaic/Microchannel Heat Sink System Using Nanofluid

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Radwan ◽  
Mohamed M. Awad ◽  
Shinichi Ookawara ◽  
Mahmoud Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cell ◽  
Heat Sink ◽  
Concentration Ratio ◽  
Open Circuit Voltage ◽  
Operation Mode ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Microchannel Heat Sink ◽  
Cell Temperature ◽  
Counter Flow ◽  
Pure Ethanol

Abstract In this study, the performance of concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) cell enhanced by using double layer microchannel heat sink (DL-MCHS) with nanofluid is investigated. Pure ethanol and 0.2 % Vol. Al2O3-ethanol are utilized to reduce the solar cell temperature under indoor solar concentration ratio of 5.7 Suns. The designed DL-MCHS is monolithically fabricated from Maraging steel using 3D metal printer. The experimental results showed that using parallel flow (PF) operation mode of the designed DL-MCHS is favourable for cooling the CPV system compared with the counter flow (CF) operation mode. In the cooled CPV using PF mode, the open circuit voltage enhancement is about 12.7% in comparison to the uncooled case. The nanofluid results also showed a reduction in the solar cell temperature in comparison with the pure coolant. The current results can be used as a validation step for accurate numerical modelling of nanofluid applications in CPV system cooling.

scholarly journals Application of a Double Layer Circular Microchannel Heat Sink in Electronic Industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1153-1158
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Mass Flow Rate ◽  
Mass Flow ◽  
Flow Rate ◽  
Heat Sink ◽  
Microchannel Heat Sink ◽  
Temperature Uniformity ◽  
Counter Flow ◽  
Circular Microchannel

The present paper is focused to evaluate the pressure drop and heat transfer performance of a double layer circular microchannel heat sink with numerically and experimentally. Numerical analysis is carried for various mass flow rates, with turbulent condition used in the ANSYS Fluent for two flow arrangements. The experiment is carried out by varying the mass flow rate ranges 3.32x10-4 kg/s to 27.72x10-4 kg/s with water as the cooling medium. The effect of a parallel flow and counter flow arrangements on heat transfer and flow parameters is studied for a constant heat input of 80W. The numerical result is nearly the same with the measured values. The pressure drop increases with the mass flow rate. The heat transfer enhancement is evaluated by the wall surface temperature and temperature uniformity. Even though parallel and counter flow arrangement has similar flow and thermal behavior, the latter has better temperature uniformity in the base of the heat sink for all pumping powers.

scholarly journals A Triangular Double Layer Microchannel Heat Sink: Effect of Parallel and Counter Flow

2015 ◽  
Vol 1115 ◽  
pp. 433-439
Author(s):  
Hazli Manaf ◽  
Shugata Ahmed ◽  
Mirghani I. Ahmed ◽  
M.N.A. Hawlader
Keyword(s):  
Reynolds Number ◽  
Aspect Ratio ◽  
Heat Sink ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Parallel Flow ◽  
Microchannel Heat Sink ◽  
Counter Flow ◽  
Flow Configuration ◽  
Aspect Ratios ◽  
Channel Aspect Ratio

A numerical study is conducted by using ANSYS CFX 14.5, a commercial computational fluid dynamics program to predict the thermal performance of a counter and parallel flow on triangular double layered microchannel heat sink for various channel aspect ratios. Findings reveal that the counter flow configuration leads to a better heat transfer performance for low channel aspect ratio (α < 4) and higher Reynolds Number (Re > 700). For the parallel flow configuration, improved performance is normally shown when channel aspect ratio, α is more than 4 and lower Reynolds Number (Re < 700).

THERMAL AND HYDRODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF A MICROCHANNEL HEAT SINK COOLED WITH CARBON NANOTUBES NANOFLUID

2016 ◽  
Vol 78 (10-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nik Ahmad Faiz Nik Mazlam ◽  
Normah Mohd-Ghazali ◽  
Thierry Mare ◽  
Patrice Estelle ◽  
Salma Halelfadl
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Resistance ◽  
Heat Sink ◽  
Operating Temperature ◽  
Heat Removal ◽  
Hydrodynamic Performance ◽  
Spherical Particles ◽  
Microchannel Heat Sink ◽  
Pumping Power ◽  
Rectangular Microchannel ◽  
Aspect Ratios

The microchannel heat sink (MCHS) has been established as an effective heat removal system in electronic chip packaging. With increasing power demand, research has advanced beyond the conventional coolants of air and water towards nanofluids with their enhanced heat transfer capabilities. This research had been carried out on the optimization of the thermal and hydrodynamic performance of a rectangular microchannel heat sink (MCHS) cooled with carbon nanotube (CNT) nanofluid, a coolant that has recently been discovered with improved thermal conductivity. Unlike the common nanofluids with spherical particles, nanotubes generally come in cylindrical structure characterized with different aspect ratios. A volume concentration of 0.1% of the CNT nanofluid is used here; the nanotubes have an average diameter and length of 9.2 nm and 1.5 mm respectively. The nanofluid has a density of 1800 kg/m3 with carbon purity 90% by weight having lignin as the surfactant. The approach used for the optimization process is based on the thermal resistance model and it is analyzed by using the non-dominated sorting multi-objective genetic algorithm. Optimized outcomes include the channel aspect ratio and the channel wall ratio at the optimal values of thermal resistance and pumping power. The optimized results show that, at high operating temperature of 40°C the use of CNT nanofluid reduces the total thermal resistance by 3% compared to at 20°C and consequently improve the thermal performance of the fluid. In terms of the hydrodynamic performance, the pumping power is also being reduced significantly by 35% at 40°C compared to the lower operating temperature.  

Optimization of Flow and Heat Transfer for a New Double-Layered Microchannel Heat Sink

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huanling Liu ◽  
Bin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Sink ◽  
Heat Transfer Performance ◽  
Microchannel Heat Sink ◽  
Transfer Performance ◽  
Temperature Uniformity ◽  
Flow And Heat Transfer ◽  
Fluent Simulation ◽  
New Type ◽  
Improved Design

Abstract In this paper, we propose a new type of DL-MCHS to improve the substrate temperature uniformity of the microchannel heat sink, and conduct the optimization of the New DL-MCHS. The heat transfer and friction characteristics of the novel DL-MCHS are studied by numerical simulation. We compare the heat transfer performance the new DL-MCHS with the traditional TDL-MCHS (the DL-MCHS with truncated top channels λ = 0.38). The results prove the effectiveness of the improved design by FLUENT simulation. When the inlet velocity is kept constant and coolant is water, the heat transfer performance of the New DL-MCHS is higher than that of TDL-MCHS leading to an increase of the temperature uniformity. In order to achieving the best overall heat transfer performance, an optimization of New DL-MCHS is performed by GA (genetic algorithm).

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