Volume 10 Issue 2 ( June 2023 )

Photovoltaic Cells are devices made of semiconductor materials that is used to convert solar energy to electrical energy in the form of a constant current. The efficiency of the photovoltaic cell increases with the increase in solar radiation while its generation efficiency decreases with the increase in Photovoltaic Cell temperature above the standard temperature. Therefore, researchers implement methods to decrease overheating. One of these methods is using PV/T. This paper presents an experimental and numerical study on the performance of the Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) system by using Nano fluids with a new design (novelty; sphere fins in open flow flat collector) of the water collector. Experiments were carried out in Iraq/Baghdad/University of Technology. Nano fluids Al₂O₃ /water was used at different volume concentration ratio as 1%, 2%, and 3% for cooling of PV panel. The influence of new design of collector and Nano additives on the PV/T performance at various operational parameters have been simulated and evaluated using ANSYS Fluent software to solved the Navier- Stockes and energy equations. Numerical results noticed a decrease in the surface temperature of the collector by 5.1% when using a Nano liquid with a concentration 1% compared to its temperature when using water only, while it decreases by 6.2% and 7.8% when using concentrations 2% and 3%, respectively at flow rate 3.5 l/min. The evaluation result demonstrates that the performance of PV/T system increased, also the Nano particles helped to system enhances.

Keywords: Open flow flat collector; PV/T system performance; Nano additives; PV/T collector