Thermal management of concentrator photovoltaic systems using nano-enhanced phase change materials-based heat sink

Temperature regulation of concentrator photovoltaic systems is essential in reducing operating temperatures with higher system performance. A new nano-enhanced phase change material, with multi-cavity heat sinks, integrated with a concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) system is developed. The multi-cavity heat sink includes a single-, triple-, and quintuple-cavity configuration in both parallel and series pattern filled with n-octadecane PCM and graphene nanoparticle additives with 2% and 5 wt%. Numerical simulations are performed using the developed two-dimensional model for photovoltaic layers integrated with the nano-enhanced phase change material-based heat sink. The predicted results are compared with the available numerical results and measurements. Results indicate that increasing the number of parallel cavities, along with weight fraction of nanoparticles, significantly improves the thermal conductivity, and consequently attains better performance for the CPV system. Using a parallel quintuple-cavity configuration, with 5 wt% NPCM, achieves maximum reduction in the solar cell mean temperature along with the best temperature uniformity compared to other configurations. At a concentration ratio of 20, the thermal efficiency is 65%, the electrical efficiency is about 10%, and the output electrical power of the system is 235 W per m width of the cell. On the contrary, using a series pattern of the heat sink has an unfavorable effect on the mean solar cell temperature, as well as on electrical efficiency and thermal performance of the CPV system. The obtained result can assist in identifying the best possible design of the heat sink in addition to the most appropriate selection of PCM and nanoparticle additives.