Thermal management of high concentrator photovoltaic module using an optimized microchannel heat sink

Abstract

Microchannel heat sinks (MCHSs) are compact and powerful thermal management devices for concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules. This study optimizes the thermal-hydraulic performance of a new MCHS, which is then integrated with a CPV module to ensure efficient thermal management and safe operation. An integrated framework combining computational fluid dynamics simulation and response surface methodology is proposed to analyze and optimize the thermal-hydraulic performance of the MCHS fitted with a twisted tape insert. The effects of fluid inlet velocity, insert initial distance, insert pitch, and insert length on various responses, including the MCHS thermal resistance (R_th), rate of the entropy generation ratio (S_gen/S_gen,o), heated wall temperature non-uniformity ratio (ΔT/ΔT_o), Nusselt number (Nu), and figure of merits (FOM) are comprehensively evaluated. The results reveal that to minimize the ΔT/ΔT_o, R_th, and S_gen/S_gen,o while maximizing Nu and FOM, a fluid velocity of 2.11 m/s, an initial distance of 7.47 mm, a pitch of 2 mm, and a twisted tape length of approximately 30 mm should be used. Under these conditions, the predicted responses are R_th = 0.775, Nu = 19.232, FOM = 1.271, S_gen/S_gen,o = 0.596 and ΔT/ΔT_o = 0.274. Integrating these optimized MCHS dimensions with a CPV module operating at a solar concentration of 1000 suns results in a 22.5% reduction in the average CPV module temperature, compared to a smooth MCHS.