Impact of Nanofluid on Performance of Photovoltaic/Thermal Systems

This paper presents the application of nanofluid in aphotovoltaic/thermal system. The Al۲O۳/Water mixture,as one of the most common nanofluids, is considered anda single model adopted to model its thermo-physicalproperties. The temperature of various components ofPV/T system is calculated by coupling and solvingenergy conservation equations for each of them undersemi-transient condition. The effects of volume flow rate(Q  ۰.۰۰۰۰۵, ۰.۰۰۰۱, ۰.۰۰۰۲, ۰.۰۰۰۴ m۳/s), particleconcentration (  ۰, ۲, ۴, ۶, and ۸%), and particlediameter ( p d =۱۰, ۲۰, ۴۰, ۸۰nm) on the solar celltemperature, and electrical performance of PV/T systemsare investigated. The results show that the solar celltemperature decreases as volume flow rate and particleconcentration increase or nanoparticle size decreases.The tendency of temperature profiles with particleconcentration is approximately linear while they varylogarithmically by increasing particle size and flow rate.This means that variations in nanoparticle diameter andflow rate beyond certain values have little effect onresults. It is also found that nanofluids with higherconcentration and smaller size of nanoparticle have morepronounced effect on electrical performances of PV/Tsystems.

کلیدواژه ها:

Heat transfer ، Nanofluid ، Renewable energy ، Solar cell.