TY - JOUR
TI - Improving thermal performance and energy production of photovoltaic thermal collector by bifurcating tree-like cooling channels
AU - Zhang Long
AU - Chang Rui
AU - Zhang Chengbin
AU - Yu Cheng
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2025
VL - 29
IS - 6
SP - 4599
EP - 4612
PT - Article
AB - Photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collectors with cooling channels suffers from poor temperature uniformity and high heat loss at high radiation intensities. However, traditional cooling channels are unable to address these specific heat dissipation requirements. In this research, the PV/T collector within the nature-inspired bifurcating tree-like cooling channels is designed and compared with the traditional parallel cooling channels. A theoretical model for heat exchange in the PV/T collector is developed. The system’s performance with different structural parameters is investigated. The results indicate that the nature-inspired bifurcating tree-like II-type cooling channel exhibits superior overall performance for the PV/T collector. Besides, the average photovoltaic module surface temperature drops by 12.47 K and the system’s electric efficiency rises by 0.84% by growing the inlet speed. Furthermore, the lowest pressure drops is 13.62 Pa in the cooling channel when the number of grades is four and the inlet mass-flow rate is 0.00256 kg/s. With the number of grades increasing, the average temperature of the photovoltaic module reduces. When the channel bifurcation angle is 1.0 α-type and the inlet mass-flow rate is 0.0124 kg/s the system’s electric efficiency is 13.66% and the PV/T collector’s performance is optimal.
DO - 10.2298/TSCI241103021Z
ER -