Computational fluid dynamics (Cfd) modelling of hybrid photovoltaic thermal system

Abstract

In this paper an attempt has been made to simulate and evaluate the distribution of temperature and heat flux for the hybrid photovoltaic thermal system with CFD (computational fluid dynamics) module in ANSYS 19.1 software. The simulation was carried to determine the temperature and heat flux across the different layers of HPVT (hybrid photovoltaic thermal) system. The temperature and heat flux were found to gradually decrease from the top glass layer to the bottom tedlar layer. The temperature varied from 36.4 °C (ambient) to 26.8 °C across the layers from top glass layer to bottom tedlar layer. The heat flux of (561.2 W/m2) at the glass layer due to solar insolation was also found to gradually decrease with the increasing thickness. The reduction in temperature and heat flux with increasing thickness is attributed to fluid flowing beneath the system. The water flowing beneath the tedlar layer takes the excess heat out of the photovoltaic layer, thereby increasing the efficiency of the hybrid photovoltaic thermal system.