Numerical investigation into the mechanism of dust deposition on photovoltaic panels in the presence of an electrostatic dust barrier

Abstract

The suppression of long-term suspended particle deposition remains a challenging problem. A strategy is proposed to suppress dust deposition by numerically predicting particle deposition behavior using the Eulerian-Lagrangian method. It has been observed that the deposition ratio increases with increasing ratio of gravity to drag force when an electrostatic barrier is not installed. However, when an electrostatic barrier is in place, particles are captured through both inertial and electrostatic mechanisms. The capture ratio of the electrostatic barrier increases with an increasing contribution of Coulomb force. The electrostatic mechanism results in a maximum enhancement of the capture ratio by about 50%. Additionally, the electrostatic barrier generates an air stream with low dust concentration, which effectively suppresses the dust deposition on the downstream PV panel under drag-force-dominant conditions. As a result, the surface dust concentration and the conversion efficiency loss of the PV panel can be maximally suppressed by about 90%.