A Numerical Study of the Thermal and Electrical Performance of Water-Based PVT Collectors with Varying Configurations

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Chinese explanation / 中文解读

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Original abstract

This study evaluates the performance of water-based Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) systems with three absorber collector configurations: twin spiral, direct, and oscillatory. Simulations were carried out using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) ANSYS software in steady-state conditions by considering the influence of variations in water mass flow rate (0.015 kg/s – 0.055 kg/s) and solar irradiance levels (600 W/m², 700 W/m², 900 W/m², and 1000 W/m²). The results showed that the absorber configuration significantly influenced PV cooling and energy performance. Among the three designs, the twin spiral configuration provided the best overall performance. At 900 W/m² and 0.02 kg/s, the twin spiral configuration reduced the PV temperature to 43.38 °C, compared with 56.59 °C for the direct configuration and 43.84 °C for the oscillatory configuration. Under the same condition, it achieved an electrical efficiency of 17.25% and a thermal efficiency of 77.37%, compared with 16.00% and 77.44% for the direct configuration, and 17.21% and 77.35% for the oscillatory configuration. The highest electrical efficiency obtained in this study was 18.06%, achieved by the twin spiral configuration at 600 W/m² and 0.055 kg/s. These findings indicate that the twin spiral absorber offers the most favorable balance between PV cooling and combined thermal-electrical performance among the investigated configurations.

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