Characteristics enhancement of one-section and two-stepwise microchannels for cooling high-concentration multi-junction photovoltaic cells

• Published in: Energy conversion and management 2020-02, Vol.206, p.112488, Article 112488
• Main Authors: Abou-Ziyan, Hosny, Ibrahim, Mohammed, Abdel-Hameed, Hala
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cooling; Cooling systems; Design parameters; Finite volume method; Heat transfer; Heat transfer coefficients; High power integrated circuits; High-concentration multi-junction photovoltaic; Hybrid jet impingement-microchannel cooling; Mathematical models; Microchannels; Net output power; Numerical models; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaics; Pressure drop; Pumping power; Stepwise microchannel cooling; Surface temperature; System effectiveness; Thermal resistance; Three dimensional models
• ISSN: 0196-8904; 1879-2227
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2020.112488

•Simple and effective microchannel/jet impingement cooling system is developed.•The system has one microchannel section or two stepwise microchannel sections.•The cooling system improves the thermal and electrical performance of HCMJPV.•The system achieves high output power, low pumping power, and PV temperature.•The system allows the HCMJPV to produce extra 820.5 MWh/m2 during its lifetime. This paper presents the development of simple, effective, and economic microchannel systems for cooling high-concentration multi-junction photovoltaic (HCMJPV) cells. The developed cooling system uses a short cooling fluid path concept with either one or two microchannel sections per the fluid path. The work is conducted using a 3D numerical model that is based on the finite volume method. The effects of design parameters on the thermal characteristics of one and two-section microchannels and output power of the HCMJPV cells are comprehensively investigated. Cooling systems that attained the largest net output power of HCMJPV cells are identified. Developed cooling systems achieved superior characteristics compared to the existing state of the art system. The two-stepwise microchannel cooling system achieves the best temperature uniformity, whereas the constant-width one-section microchannel cooling system achieves slightly better characteristics than the two-stepwise system. The proposed constant-width one-section cooling system achieves comparable standard deviation and lower surface temperature (35.65 °C), pressure drop (68.41%) and microchannel thermal resistance (49.57%) along with higher generated power (8.27%), net output power (8.44%) and overall heat transfer coefficient (175.8%) than the existed cooling system in literature. The developed cooling system allows the cells to produce an extra 820.5MWh/m2 of cells during their lifetime.