Numerical modelling of a concentrating photovoltaic thermal collector

Abstract

In this paper, the performance evaluation of a concentrating photovoltaic thermal (CPVT) collector is carried out. By writing energy, balance for the various components of CPVT collector, a set of nonlinear equations is obtained to calculate the temperature of different parts of the system. The electrical parameters of the CPVT collector are calculated by the four-parameter model of current-voltage. The simulation results of the present study are in good accordance with the previous studies data. The results show that with the fluid velocity increase from 0.08 to 0.43 m/s, the electrical efficiency and thermal efficiency increase by 1.05% and 2.2%, respectively. The thermal efficiency is enhanced by 9.4% as the receiver width is increased from 0.06 to 0.2 m. With the increase of diameter pipe from 0.017 to 0.06 m an increase of 2.75% and 3.9% is observed in the thermal and electrical efficiencies, respectively. The thermal efficiency has an ascending/descending trend with the increase of collector length. The increase of fluid inlet temperature from 273.15 to 363.15 K reduces the thermal and electrical efficiencies by 7.3% and 4.05%, respectively. The increase of the incident beam radiation from 300 to 1000 W/m2 enhances the electrical efficiency by 4%, while the thermal efficiency has an ascending/descending trend. The ambient temperature increase causes an increase of 5.1% in thermal efficiency. The effect of receiver width and ambient temperature on electrical efficiency is negligible.