The effect of microchannel-porous media and nanofluid on temperature and performance of CPV system

This numerical study on the effect of microchannels with porous medium and nanofluid on the solar concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) system with a solar concentration ratio of 10 is presented. Numerical simulation is two-dimensional and different layers of CPV are modeled. The effect of the position of the porous layer in the microchannel on the cooling of the PV system is investigated. The thermal behavior of the microchannel with the porous layer varies with the change of Darcy number, and the porosity coefficient according to the position of the porous layer in the microchannel is studied. The consequences demonstrate that the solar cell temperature is reduced by about 17% using the microchannel. The development of the microchannel cooling capacity is related to the rise in thermal conductivity in the porous layer. Also, in the porous layer cases, located in a block width across the microchannel, the maximum electrical efficiency rate and the minimum of the solar cell temperature occurred. The raising of the nanofluid volume fraction has improved the CPV system's electrical efficiency. Consequently, the solar cell temperature can be reduced from 1 to 52% with the increment of radiation intensity from 100 to 1000 Wm−2. The proposed cooling method is about 30% more effective than the conventional fin cooling method.