Thermal- hydraulic performance optimization of PV panel cooling via aluminum - Modified ground heat exchanger under Iraqi climate conditions

IF 6.3 2区材料科学 Q2 ENERGY & FUELS

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells Pub Date : 2025-09-02 DOI:10.1016/j.solmat.2025.113942

Ahmed Ameen Ali , lltifat Lazim Edan , Baydaa Adnan Hussein , Hasan Talib Hashim , Murtadha D. Abdullah

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) systems operate more inefficiently at higher temperatures due to the high level of solar irradiance. In the current study, using ground heat exchangers (GHEs) is investigated as a strategy to reduce the temperature of PV panel surfaces and enhance the efficiency of PV panels. The limitation of this approach lies in the limited heat transfer ability of the soil surrounding the ground heat exchangers (GHEs), due to the low thermal conductivity of natural soil. To address this shortcoming, the thermal conductivity of the soil can be enhanced by adding powdered aluminium (Al) to improve its thermo-conductivity properties, as aluminium exhibits excellent thermo-conductivity qualities. The authors investigated various ratios of aluminium mixing, ranging from 10 % to 30 %. ANSYS Fluent was used to run the simulation of the typical summer conditions in Iraq with solar irradiance varying between 200 W/m² and 1000 W/m², ambient temperature between 30 °C and 48 °C and mass flow ranges varying between 0.005 and 0.02 kg/s developed five flows scenarios. Evaluation of each case was done between 8.00 and 17.00 to capture the PV performance in a day, to identify the impact on surface temperature, electrical efficiency, pumping power, and thermal-hydraulic performance factor (THPF). This investigation examined the performance comparison between aluminium-enhanced GHE systems and those of uncooled PV panels, water-spray-cooled panels (PV-W), standard GHEs (PV-GHE), and modified systems with varying aluminium contents (PV-GHE-AL). In PV-GHE-AL-30 %, the highest cooling system thermal efficiency was achieved, along with the lowest thermal surface temperature of 44 °C, compared to the reference PV panel at 1000 W/m², coupled with a 22.7 % higher electrical efficiency. The findings confirm that aluminium powder is effective in enhancing the soil performance of photovoltaic cooling systems using GHE technology at a constant drop in pressure.

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伊拉克气候条件下铝改性地热交换器冷却光伏板的热工性能优化

由于太阳辐照度高，光伏（PV）系统在较高温度下运行效率较低。在本研究中，研究了使用地面热交换器（GHEs）作为降低光伏板表面温度和提高光伏板效率的策略。这种方法的局限性在于，由于天然土壤的导热性较低，地面热交换器（GHEs）周围土壤的传热能力有限。为了解决这一缺点，可以通过添加粉状铝（Al）来提高土壤的导热性，因为铝具有优异的导热性。作者研究了不同比例的铝混合，范围从10%到30%。利用ANSYS Fluent软件，在太阳辐照度为200 W/m2 ~ 1000 W/m2、环境温度为30℃~ 48℃、质量流量为0.005 ~ 0.02 kg/s的情况下，对伊拉克典型夏季条件进行了模拟，开发了5种流动情景。在8点到17点之间对每个案例进行评估，以获取PV在一天中的性能，以确定对地表温度、电效率、泵送功率和热工性能因子（THPF）的影响。本研究考察了铝增强型GHE系统与非冷却型PV板、水雾冷却板（PV- w）、标准GHEs （PV-GHE）和不同铝含量的改进系统（PV-GHE- al）之间的性能比较。在PV- ge - al - 30%的情况下，与参考PV面板1000 W/m2相比，达到了最高的冷却系统热效率，最低的热表面温度为44°C，同时电气效率提高了22.7%。研究结果证实，在压力恒定下降的情况下，铝粉可以有效地提高采用GHE技术的光伏冷却系统的土壤性能。

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来源期刊

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 工程技术-材料科学：综合

CiteScore

12.60

自引率

11.60%

发文量

513

审稿时长

47 days

期刊介绍： Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells is intended as a vehicle for the dissemination of research results on materials science and technology related to photovoltaic, photothermal and photoelectrochemical solar energy conversion. Materials science is taken in the broadest possible sense and encompasses physics, chemistry, optics, materials fabrication and analysis for all types of materials.