Experimental and CFD Simulation Study of Heat Transfer Enhancement in a Flat-Plate Photovoltaic Thermal Collector with Spiral Cooling Channels

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Faculty of Chemical, Petroleum and Gas Engineering

2 Chemical, Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran

3 Department of Energy, Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran

Abstract

A photovoltaic cell converts solar radiation energy into electrical energy. Radiation on the photovoltaic surface causes an increase in the temperature of the photovoltaic cell, which leads to a decrease in the efficiency of the photovoltaic system. In this paper, a new structure of a thermal collector for absorbing energy from the operation of the photovoltaic cell was examined using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The main geometry is a flat-plate photovoltaic collector with a spiral cooling channel beneath the plate, using water as the working fluid within the laminar flow Reynolds number range. In this paper, the effect of the presence of turbulators with different angles of 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75° and 90° was simulated. Then, the presence of nanofluid with aluminum oxide nanoparticles in different volume fractions of 1 to 4% was investigated. Also, the effect of a combined system of turbulators and nanofluid with nanoparticles on the increase in heat transfer was investigated. The CFD simulation results were evaluated using two performance criteria: the ratio of total heat transfer rate during cooling to the power required for flow circulation and the standard deviation criterion (evaluating the temperature distribution uniformity on the photovoltaic surface). The results showed that the system with a 15° turbulator provided better hydraulic and thermal performance compared to the baseline system, the nanofluid system, and the combined system.

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Journal of Modeling in Engineering

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 05 October 2025

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History

  • Receive Date: 01 May 2025
  • Revise Date: 21 August 2025
  • Accept Date: 06 September 2025

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