Impact of PCM type on photocell performance using heat pipe-PCM cooling system: A numerical study

Abstract

The effectiveness of a hybrid cooling system consisting of flat heat pipes (HP) and a heat sink of phase change material (PCM) for the temperature regulation of the photocell (PV) is studied. The system is mathematically modeled and numerically solved by using MatLab software. The impact of the type of PCM (RT25, RT35, and RT42) in summer on the performance of the hybrid photocell cooling system is analyzed. Results prove that the HP-PCM cooling system performs better than the natural photocell cooling. PCM with a low melting point is more efficient for electric performance than a high melting point. For a given PCM thickness of 4 cm, the maximum temperature of the photocell is reduced by 8.7 °C when PCM RT25 is used as a heat sink compared to 7.5 °C and 7.3 °C for RT35 and RT42, respectively. RT25-based PV/HP-PCM system outperformed a conventionally cooled photocell in terms of electrical efficiency by 5.3%. In comparison, RT35 and RT42 yield incremental gains of 5% and 4.5 %, respectively. As the PCM melting point is lowered, the hourly thermal efficiency increases with a peak of 48.9% for RT25, 33.7% for RT35, and 32.2% for RT42, respectively.