Porous cooling and thermoelectric generation in concentrated photovoltaic thermal systems
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Gupta, Abhishek
Chougule, Sandesh S
Saha, Sandip K
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Photovoltaic-thermal systems under high concentrated solar radiation suffer severe thermal management challenges, as elevated cell temperatures degrade electrical output and material reliability. This study evaluates the thermoelectric and photovoltaic performance of a high concentrated photovoltaic-thermal system integrated with a spectral splitter and hybrid cooling configuration, comprising a porous heat sink and a thermoelectric generator module. A coupled electro-thermal-fluid model is developed to assess the various performance parameters of the hybrid system. The effect of critical design parameters, including porosity, pore size, and inlet velocity, is investigated. The cell maximum temperature surpasses the critical threshold of 110 °C for the porosities above 0.8. A reduction in porosity enhances the temperature uniformity across the photovoltaic cell surface. Conversely, increasing the porosity of the heat sink leads to an improvement in the overall exergy performance of the system. Variations in pore size insignificantly affect the electrical output of the photovoltaic cell. However, increased pressure drop at low pore sizes results in a sharp reduction in the overall exergy. The overall exergy reduces from 49.29 % at a pore size of 3.5 mm to 42.59 % at a pore size of 1.5 mm for a porosity of 0.66. The increased coolant inlet velocity reduces the overall exergy despite aiding in temperature control, suggesting that operation at lower inlet velocities is optimal. The overall exergy increases to 52.76 % at 0.4 m/s from 49.29 % at 0.8 m/s inlet velocity. The thermoelectric generator modules help improve the overall exergy by converting excess waste heat into useful electrical energy output.
Date Issued
2025-12-01
Date Acceptance
2025-09-20
Citation
Applied Thermal Engineering, 2025, 280 (Part 4)
ISSN
1359-4311
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Applied Thermal Engineering
Volume
280
Issue
Part 4
Copyright Statement
© 2025 Elsevier Ltd. This is the author’s accepted manuscript made available under a CC-BY licence in accordance with Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy (www.imperial.ac.uk/oa-policy)
License URL
Identifier
10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2025.128451
Subjects
Efficiency
Energy & Fuels
Engineering
Engineering, Mechanical
Exergy
High concentrated photovoltaic cell
Hybrid cooling
Mechanics
Physical Sciences
Porous medium
Science & Technology
Stress
Technology
Thermodynamics
Thermoelectric generator
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
128451
Date Publish Online
2025-09-22