Thermal management of concentrator photovoltaic systems using microchannel heat sink with nanofluids

A new cooling method for concentrator photovoltaic system is proposed using wide microchannel heat sink with nanofluids. A comprehensive three-dimensional model is developed. The model couples the two-phase (Eulerian-Eulerian) multiphase model for the conjugate heat transfer of nanofluid flow in a wide microchannel heat sink with the thermal model of the concentrator photovoltaic systems. The model is numerically simulated and validated with the available experimental and numerical data. The influences of nanoparticle types, volume fractions, and coolant flow Reynolds number on the solar cell performance parameters are investigated. Results indicate that using SiC-water nanofluids attains lower cell temperature compared with Al2O3-water nanofluids. The increase of nanoparticles volume fraction ratio remarkably reduces the solar cell temperature and enhances the cell temperature uniformity and electrical efficiency. Furthermore, increasing the flow Reynolds number to a specific value significantly enhances the net electrical power. Further increase of the Reynolds number results in a significant reduction in the cell net gained power. By using 4% SiC-water nanofluid, the reduction in maximum local solar cell temperature is ranged between 8 °C and 3 °C compared with pure water with changing the flow Reynolds number from 12.5 to 250 at solar concentration ratio of 20.