Thermal management of solar photovoltaic module by using drilled cylindrical rods integrated with phase change materials

Solar photovoltaic panels are designed to generate electrical voltage when exposed to sunlight. The temperature of the photovoltaic cell surface rises as a result of sunlight striking the active portion of the panel. The output voltage of the PV cell decreases as the surface temperature of the PV cell rises, resulting in a drop in the PV module's output power. To reduce the operating temperature of the PV module different types of a heat sink having PCM are used in already published studies. This research work aims to enhance the performance of the heat sink by attaching an alternative and novel kind of heat sink to the rear side of the PV module. The proposed heat sink is composed of an array of drilled cylindrical rods with extended geometry like pin fins filled with phase change material. The proposed thermal management model is investigated both experimentally and by numerical simulations. Using experimental data, the thermal and electrical performances of the modified PV module are compared to the original PV module. Fins absorb heat from the rear surface of the PV panel through conduction heat transfer and increase the heat transfer area. The PCM absorbs the heat from the PV module in the form of latent heat transfer by shifting its phase. In the trials, the temperature of the PV module decreased by 5.18 °C. The output voltage is raised by 0.53 V, and the PV-PCM efficiency is increased by 2.9% to the efficiency of the PV module without a heat sink. Moreover, a comprehensive parametric sensitivity analysis is conducted using the validated numerical model to investigate the impact of wind speed and incidence angle on the PCM-integrated modified PV module. The numerical results show an increase of 0.4 m/s in wind speed decreases the temperature of the Tedlar wall to 0.4196 °C and the temperature of the solar module decreases by increasing the Iincidence angle of wind from 30°–90°. The results indicate that the PCM-integrated modified solar module is successful in optimizing the PV module's output power.