Experimental studies on photovoltaic thermal system using titanium oxide nano fluid

Abstract

Nearly 80 percent of the incident solar radiation is absorbed by Photovoltaic module and only a small proportion of it is transformed to electrical energy and the remaining is dissipated as thermal energy This results in the lower conversion efficiency of the PV cell The increase in cell temperature reduces the electrical efficiency by 0 45% for per degree increase in cell temperature Different techniques have been used to recover the thermal energy from the Photovoltaic module and to reduce the cell temperature Thermal absorbers exhibiting various flow patterns and different geometries are attached conjunction with the PV module in order to extract heat and cool cell of the PV module A novel design of thermal absorber consisting of a flattened tube and a spiral flow configuration is used for removal of thermal energy and to reduce the cell temperature An active cooling for the PVT system has been maintained by using pump Water is used for analysis as the working fluid in the PVT system The performance of the PVT system is also analysed by using a water based nanofluid prepared using Titanium oxide nanoparticle The concentration ratio of the nanofluid is 0 1 The thermophysical properties of TiO2 nanofluid has been determined and results show that the prepared nanofluid exhibits better thermo physical properties compared with water In order to evaluate the thermal performance of the flattened tube spiral configuration the analysis of the absorber has been carried out devoid of the PV panel for the mass flow rates of 0 05 kg s 0 066 kg s and 0 083 kg s The effect of mass flow rate on the flatness of the tube and spiral configuration of the absorber is investigated The outlet fluid temperature instantaneous efficiency Reynolds number Nusselt number and heat transfer coefficient friction factor and Dean number are the parameters considered in this analysis newline