Enhanced heat dissipation of truncated multi-level fin heat sink (MLFHS) in case of natural convection for photovoltaic cooling

Abstract The increase in module operating temperature above 25 °C can be detrimental to the electrical output performance of photovoltaic (PV) modules. The study introduces a novel truncated multi-level fin heat sink (MLFHS) subject to natural convection for photovoltaic (PV) cooling. The proposed fin geometry aims to improve the heat transfer by inducing abrupt change within the boundary layer in the fin confined region through the multi-level fin height. The effect of fin spacing, fin height, and fin thickness on the heat transfer properties of the MLFHS was investigated numerically using finite element analysis (FEA). The parametric study was conducted to compare the thermal performance of the MLFHS with the conventional rectangular plate-fin heat sinks by varying the fin spacing (p = 10–35 mm), fin height (h = 60–120 mm), and fin thickness (t = 0.5–1.5 mm). The results indicate that the average temperature decreases first and increases with fin height, fin spacing, and fin thickness. The findings were promising with an optimized fin heat sink showing a decrease in the average PV module temperature as high as 6.13% and improved power output by 2.87%. The proposed fin geometry provides a promising heat transfer approach for PV cooling applications.