Experimental Study on the Performance of a Phase Change Slurry-Based Heat Pipe Solar Photovoltaic/Thermal Cogeneration System

By employing phase change slurry (PCS) as working fluid for the heat pipe solar PV/T system, the study is designed to investigate the electrical and thermal energy performance of the system. Meanwhile, through examining the performance difference between water-based and PCS-based heat pipe solar PV/...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hongbing Chen, Yutong Gong, Ping Wei, Pingjun Nie, Yaxuan Xiong, Congcong Wang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2019-01-01
Series:International Journal of Photoenergy
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/9579357
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Summary:By employing phase change slurry (PCS) as working fluid for the heat pipe solar PV/T system, the study is designed to investigate the electrical and thermal energy performance of the system. Meanwhile, through examining the performance difference between water-based and PCS-based heat pipe solar PV/T systems, 30% alkyl hydrocarbon PCS is proved to be a suitable working fluid for optimized energy performance based on the combined consideration of the thermophysical and rheological properties. Both static and dynamic stability tests show that 30% alkyl hydrocarbon PCS has a good stability for low-temperature thermal energy storage. A testing rig is constructed consisting of two identical heat pipe solar PV/T cogeneration systems A and B, in which water and 30% alkyl hydrocarbon PCS are, respectively, employed as working fluids; the energy performance of those two PV/T systems are investigated and compared with each other under the same testing condition. The results indicate that the application of PCS to the heat pipe PV/T system leads to a significant improvement in thermal performance and a modest growth in electrical performance. The daily heat gains and overall average efficiency of system B are 4.2 MJ/m2 (per unit area of PV/T panel) and 59.3%, respectively, 27.3% and 9.3% higher than those of system A. Per unit area of the heat pipe PV/T panel could produce 55.2 L domestic hot water of about 45°C on a sunny day.
ISSN:1110-662X
1687-529X