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1 s2.0 S0960148121018796 Main
1 s2.0 S0960148121018796 Main
1 s2.0 S0960148121018796 Main
Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: For a Si-Photovoltaic (PV) system, the incident solar radiation is not completely used for electricity
Received 24 June 2021 generation because a fraction of the incident energy is transmitted, and the other is thermalized
Received in revised form increasing the temperature of the solar cell. An alternative to minimize this problem is to use direct
27 November 2021
absorption solar collectors containing plasmonic nanofluids on the top of the PV solar cell to filter the
Accepted 30 December 2021
solar radiation. This Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) system has a global energetic efficiency that depends
Available online 3 January 2022
on the optical and physical properties of the nanofluid. Then, a parametric analysis of the energetic and
exergetic efficiencies of a PV/T system containing silver and gold nanoparticles was developed, and the
Keywords:
PV/T system
parameters set that optimizes the performance of a PV/T system were determined. For example,
Exergy considering that the global energetic efficiency of a PV system is 21%, for the optimized design of the
Nanoparticles proposed PV/T system, it increases to a maximum value of 52.45% (16.05% for PV and 36.40% for the
Plasmonics thermal system) using aqueous nanofluids containing gold nanoparticles of 10 nm diameter and 9 106
volumetric fraction and 0.0060 kg/s mass flow rate. It shows that metallic nanofluids can improve the PV/
T system performance.
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.12.151
0960-1481/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
mez-Malago
F.L.J. Diniz, C.V.P. Vital and L.A. Go n Renewable Energy 186 (2022) 51e65
frequency, strong absorption of the incident light is induced in the configuration, the absorbed radiation by the NF is converted into
VIS region for plasmonic NPs like silver and gold [10]. heat, and the remaining transmitted radiation is absorbed by the PV
NFs are extensively studied in the literature to improve the solar cell to generate electricity [21].
performance of PV/Flat plate [11], flat plate [12], tube evacuated For this device, the energetic and exergetic efficiencies were
[13], and DASCs [14]. NFs containing metallic NPs working as op- determined by solving the coupled electrical and thermal models of
tical filters are also studied in the literature showing their potential the PV and PV/T systems respectively, considering the physical and
for PV/T applications [15]. For example, the performance of a PV/T optical properties of aqueous NFs containing silver and gold NPs.
system with Ag@TiO2 NPs was evaluated and the best performance
was obtained with a 200 ppm concentration [16]. Using Ag and 2.2. Energy and exergy efficiencies
Ag þ CoSO4 NFs, Han et al. evaluated PV/T systems with particles
diluted in different base fluids, and these NFs showed satisfactory The thermal efficiency was evaluated to quantify the absorbed
results in a low concentration regime [17,18]. Also exploring Ag energy by the NF, and the electrical efficiency was evaluated to
hybrid NF at different concentrations, Hjerrild et al. showed the quantify the electrical energy delivered by the PV system. Both
overall performance of PV/T systems is better than the PV only thermal and electrical efficiencies can be calculated respectively, as
system [19]. Moreover, the efficiency of PV/T systems using Ag and [22]:
Au NFs with fixed concentration was evaluated by Saroha et al., and
experimental results presented good results for thermal and elec- m_ nf Cp;nf Tnf ;out Tnf ;in
trical efficiencies [20]. hth ¼ (1)
Due to the plasmon resonance in the visible range, silver and I0 A
gold NFs are remarkable plasmonic materials for solar harvesting
applications. Although these materials are extensively explored in Jmpp Vmpp
hel ¼ (2)
the literature, the evaluation of PV/T systems with metallic NFs only I0
examines variations in the NP concentration. Thus, other parame-
ters such as NP diameter, mass flow rate, and NF channel thickness where m_ nf is the mass flow rate, Cp,nf is the NFs specific heat, Tnf,in
are neglected in the performance analysis. and Tnf,out are the inlet and outlet NF temperature, I0 is the incident
Therefore, there is a lack of information about the optimal solar radiation on the collector plane, A is the collector area, and
design that maximizes the efficiency of the PV/T system. In this Vmpp, Jmpp are the voltage and current density of the solar cell at
paper, a PV/T system using NFs containing spherical silver and gold maximum power point, respectively. Then, as the thermal and
NPs is explored. Energetic and exergetic analyses are conducted, photovoltaic collectors share the incident solar radiation, the total
and the parameters that maximize the overall efficiency are efficiency can be written as:
determined.
htotal ¼ hel þ hth (3)
2. Methods However, since electrical and thermal energies have not the
same quality level, the energy efficiency analysis method is not an
2.1. Physical model of PV/T system appropriate approach for PV/T devices because it does not differ-
entiate energy quality. Therefore, the concept of exergy is the most
The proposed collector in this study has the configuration of a adopted. For a PV/T system, the exergetic efficiency can be calcu-
DASC coupled to a PV solar cell, as shown in Fig. 1. In this lated as [23]:
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hex ¼ hex; electrical þ hex;thermal (4) 0 qEg
J0 ¼ K0 T 3=m exp (10)
mkTpv
where hex,electrical and hex,thermal are the electrical and thermal
exergetic efficiencies, respectively. In this case, these exergetic ef- 2
fTpv
ficiencies are given by Ref. [24]: Eg ¼ Eg0 (11)
b þ Tpv
hel
hex;electrical ¼ 4 (5)
aa 1 4 a þ 1 a Rs ¼ Rs0 exp Bs Tpv (12)
3 i 3 i
! B
Rsh ¼ Rsh0 exp sh (13)
1 TTnfamb Tpv
;out
hex;thermal ¼ 4 hth (6) where K0, m' and m are temperature independent empirical con-
aa 1 43 a
i þ 1 a
3 i stants, Eg is the band-gap energy of the solar cell semiconductor
material, Eg0 is the band-gap energy at 0 K, a and b are parameters
where the denominator in Eqs. (5) and (6) is introduced by Badescu of the semiconductor material [27], Bs and Bsh are specific co-
[24] to obtain an accurate analytical upper bound for the energy efficients for the semiconductor material (Bs, Bsh > 0), and Rs0 and
conversion. It is given by the reduced environment temperature Rsh0 are the series and shunt resistors at 0K.
a ¼ Tamb/TSun, and the interaction factor (i) as: The short circuit current density is due to the generation and
collection of light-generated carriers. For an ideal solar cell, the
14 short circuit current density and the light-generated current den-
fH εH
i¼ aa (7) sity are identical. Therefore, the short-circuit current density is the
fa εa
largest current which may be drawn from the solar cell and is given
by:
where Tamb is the room temperature, TSun is the sun temperature
(5800 K), fH is the geometric factor of the solar concentrated radi-
lgap
ð
ation, fa is the geometric factor of the radiation emitted by the
absorber, εH is the dilution factor of the direct solar radiation, aa is Jsc ¼ q sðlÞ,EQEðlÞ dl (14)
the material absorbance, and εa is the material emittance. In this lmin
work, we considered undiluted blackbody radiation (εH ¼ 1),
unconcentrated direct solar radiation (fH ¼ 2.17∙105), hemi- where s(l) is the photon flux of the incident solar radiation and is
spherical radiation emission (fa ¼ 1), and selective absorber given by ASTM G159-98 [28], and the EQE (l) is the external spectral
(aa ¼ 0.9, εa ¼ 0.18) [24]. Another bound is obtained with i ¼ 1 and quantum efficiency of the solar cell.
aa ¼ 1 in equation (7), reducing the denominator in equations (5) Thus, the maximum power generated by the solar cell, Pmax, is
and (6) to the PLP model [24]. calculated using iterative methods that maximize Eq. (8). The so-
lution is given by the values of the voltage and current density at
the maximum power point (Vmpp, Jmpp). To calculate the PV cell
2.3. PV model parameters, the analyzed spectral range is selected between
lmin ¼ 280 nm and the Si band-gap, lgap ¼ 1100 nm.
The electrical power density generated by the PV solar cell, P, is
calculated according to the equation:
2.4. Properties of nanofluids
P ¼ J,V (8)
2.4.1. Optical properties
where J is the instantaneous current density and V is the voltage of The linear interaction of light with matter can be described
the PV solar cell. using the linear refraction index, n’, and the extinction coefficient,
Considering that the current density in the solar cell can be n”. Usually, the complex linear refraction index is written as the
calculated as a superposition of saturation current density and sum of the real and imaginary parts as n ~ ¼ n’ þin”. The linear
short circuit current density, the single diode model is the simplest refraction index is associated with the phase velocity and the
to represent the J-V (current-voltage) ratio of the PV solar cell, given extinction coefficient with the attenuation of the wave as it prop-
by Ref. [1]: agates through the medium [29]. It is important to note that the
optical properties, and consequently, its optical response depends
qðV þ JRs Þ V þ JRs on frequency. Then, these coefficients are related to the optical
J ¼ Jsc J0 exp 1 (9)
nkTpv Rsh behavior of NF under solar radiation excitation. It is well known
that when light passes through a homogeneous media, its intensity
where Jsc is the short circuit current density, Jo is the reverse is attenuated according to Lambert-Beer law. In our case, when the
saturation current density, n is the diode ideality factor, q is the incident solar radiation, I0, passes through a NF of thickness y, its
electron elemental charge, k is the Boltzman constant, Tpv is the intensity is attenuated as:
solar cell temperature, Rs and Rsh are the series and shunt re-
sistances, respectively. The inclusion of temperature dependence IðyÞ ¼ I0 eKnf ,y (15)
on reverse saturation current density [25], band-gap energy, and
series and shunt resistances [26] changes the profile of the J-V where Knf is the NF attenuation coefficient. As the NF is composed of
relationship, and consequently, the PV cell efficiency. The depen- a base fluid (water) and NPs, the attenuation coefficient can be
dence of these variables on temperature is given by: written as:
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F.L.J. Diniz, C.V.P. Vital and L.A. Go n Renewable Energy 186 (2022) 51e65
2 3
Knf ¼ Kbf þ Knp (16) knp þ 2kbf 2fv kbf knp
knf ¼ 4 5kbf (23)
where Kbf and Knp are the attenuation coefficients of the base fluid knp þ 2kbf þ fv kbf knp
and NPs, respectively. For the base fluid, the relation between the
attenuation coefficient and the extinction coefficient is given by: where kbf is the base fluid thermal conductivity and knp the NP
thermal conductivity.
4pn}bf Finally, the NF viscosity, mnf, can be written from the Einstein
Kbf ¼ (17)
l equation [37] where mbf is the base fluid viscosity, thus:
where l is the wavelength of the incident solar radiation. On the mnf ¼ ð1 þ 2:5fv Þmbf (24)
other hand, the determination of the attenuation coefficient of
small particles is well described by Mie's theory [29]. In this theory, Models of the physical properties expressed in Equations 21e24
the attenuation coefficient is proportional to extinction efficiency, will be used into the thermal model to predict the performance of
Qext, and to the volumetric fraction, fv, which is defined as the NPs the PV/T system.
volume divided by the total NF volume, and inversely proportional
to the particle diameter, D, as:
2.5. Thermal model
3fv Qext
Knp ¼ (18) 2.5.1. Thermodynamical balance
2D
The mathematical model used in this study was obtained from
From this theory, the calculation of the extinction efficiency is
the First Law of Thermodynamics, using the energy balance equa-
given by the sum of terms involving the Riccati-Bessel functions, tion for each PV/T collector component shown in Fig. 2. The spectral
which are dependent on the size parameter, x ¼ pDn ~ bf/l. Consid-
profile of the incident solar radiation is modified after it crosses the
ering terms of order x4, the extinction efficiency can be written as: glasses and the NF, working as a DASC. Only the desired spectral
2 2 4 profile for the spectral response of the PV cell remains.
m~ 1 ~ 1
x2 m ~ þ 27m
m ~ 2 þ 38
Qext ¼ 4x Im 1 þ
m~2 þ2 ~2 þ2
15 m ~2 þ3
2m
( 2 )
2
8 ~ 1
m
þ x4 Re
3 ~2 þ 2
m
(19)
~ np n0np þ in}np
n
~¼
m ¼ (20)
~ bf
n n0bf þ in}bf
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F.L.J. Diniz, C.V.P. Vital and L.A. Go n Renewable Energy 186 (2022) 51e65
The energy balance equation for the system control volume is 2.5.2. Heat transfer mechanisms
given by: To solve the energy balance in the PV/T system shown in Fig. 2, it
is necessary to know the convective heat transfer coefficients at the
vU interfaces.
¼ Q_ in Q_ out (25)
vt Glass - Air Interface.
The heat loss between the glass exposed to outside wind can be
where vU=vt is the rate of change in internal energy, Q_ in is the rate determined from the convective heat transfer coefficient at the
of energy entering the system, and Q_ is the rate of energy leaving
out interface of glass 1 with air, which is given by the following
the system. As we will consider the PV/T collector operating at expression [40]:
steady-state condition, the internal energy change is zero.
Considering that the refraction losses and heat transfer by hg;conv ¼ 5:7 þ 3:8Vw (32)
thermal radiation between the glasses and the NF are negligible, for
the unidimensional PV/T model, the energy balance is given by where Vw is the wind velocity.
equations (26)e(29) for each component shown in Fig. 2, as: Nanofluid e Glass Interface.
Glass 1 NF transfers heat to glass 1 and glass 2 by convection with co-
efficient described by:
hnf ;conv Tnf Tg1 þag1 I0 hg;conv Tg1 Tamb sεg Tg1
4 4
Tamb ¼0 Nunf knf
hnf ; conv ¼ (33)
(26) Dh
Nanofluid where Nunf is the Nusselt number, knf is the NF thermal conduc-
tivity, and the quantity Dh is called hydraulic diameter, which is the
m_ nf cp;nf Tnf ;in Tnf ;out equivalent diameter of a round pipe which yields the same force
tg1 anf I0 hnf ; conv 2Tnf Tg1 Tg2 ¼0 balance as that for a non-circular duct. Since the NF is at laminar
A
(27) flow condition, the Nusselt number can be written as [40]:
Glass 2 Nunf ¼ 0:4328 1 þ 11:285fv0:754 Pe0:218 Re0:333 Pr0:4 (34)
hnf ; conv Tnf Tg2 þ tg1 tnf ag2 I0 hg;conv Tg2 Tamb with
(28)
sεg Tg24 4
Tamb ¼0 rnf cp;nf unf D
Pe ¼ (35)
PV cell
knf
tg1 tnf tg2 apv I0 Jmpp Vmpp 2hpv;conv Tpv Tamb rnf Dh unf
Re ¼ (36)
2sεpv Tpv
4 4
Tamb ¼0
(29) mnf
mnf cp;nf
where hnf,conv and hg,conv are the convective heat transfer coefficient Pr ¼ (37)
for NF and glasses, respectively. Tnf is the NF temperature, Tg is the knf
glass temperature, ag, anf and apv are the energy fraction absorbed
by the glass, NF and PV cell, respectively. s is the Stefan-Boltzmann and
constant, ε is the surface emissivity, tg and tnf are transmission
4Acs
coefficients for the glass and NF, respectively. It is important to note Dh ¼ (38)
p
that, as the glasses are assumed to be thin, the thermal conduction
resistances are neglected [38].
where Pe, Re, Pr, and unf are Peclet number, Reynolds number,
On the other hand, the electrical description of the PV cell
Prandtl number and NF velocity, respectively [41], p and Acs are the
operating at the maximum power point is obtained by a system of
wetted perimeter and area of the cross-section, respectively [42].
equations, given by the equation (8) and by its maximum dV dP ¼ 0 PV Cell e Air Interface.
The PV cell transfers heat to the environment by convection
as:
with coefficient described in Eq. (33), and by radiation considering
2 0 1 3 that emissivity value (ε) similar to that of glass.
q Vmpp þ Jmpp Rs
Jsc J0 4exp@ A 15 Vmpp þ Jmpp Rs Jmpp ¼ 0
nkTpv Rsh 2.5.3. Model validation
The energy balance equations were validated in similar systems
(30)
by experimental results [39]. Furthermore, as the proposed PV/T
0 1 collector is composed by a DASC on the top of a PV cell, the vali-
q Vmpp þ Jmpp Rs dation of the thermal model is conducted by comparing the present
qVmpp
Jsc þ J0 J0 1þ exp@ A work results with a previously reported numerical model for a
nkTpv nkTpv
(31) DASC. The thermal efficiency of a collector using Au NF with volume
2Vmpp þ Jmpp Rs fraction fv ¼ 0.005% is evaluated by using the present model and the
¼0
Rsh results are compared with a 2-D heat transfer model [43] for
different collector heights, and presented in Fig. 3. The numerical
where Jmpp and Vmpp are the current and voltage at the maximum model adopted in the reference is widely adopted in the literature
power point. [44,45], and is experimentally validated [46]. As shown in Fig. 3, the
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F.L.J. Diniz, C.V.P. Vital and L.A. Go n Renewable Energy 186 (2022) 51e65
Silver and gold NFs were chosen because they have high ab-
sorption peaks due to plasmon resonance near to sunlight peak
irradiance in the VIS region. Thus, when the incident solar radiation
interacts with the NF, it absorbs radiation in the UV-VIS region and
lets the radiation pass between 723 and 1067 nm which is the
optimal spectral range for Si PV cells [47]. For comparison, the AM
1.5 solar spectrum, extinction coefficients, and the spectral profile
of the transmitted radiation after passing through a DASC con-
taining silver and gold NPs are shown in Fig. 4(a) and (b) respec-
Fig. 3. Thermal efficiencies using [43] and the present work. tively. From Fig. 4 it is observed that photons from the solar incident
radiation in the UV-VIS region are absorbed by the DASC as ex-
pected, and photons in the optimal spectral range are smoothly
absorbed by the NF filter letting the photons reach the PV solar cell
to generate electricity.
3.2. Efficiencies
Table 1
Values of the parameters used in this study.
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volumetric fraction. almost constant in the studied range of silver and gold NPs size.
The determination of efficiencies using Equations (1)e(6) re- However, it is observed that the thermal and electric efficiencies are
quires the knowledge of Tnf,in, Tnf,out, Jmpp and Vmpp. For the unidi- almost constant up to 20 nm, and for larger NPs, it increases the
mensional model Tnf,in ¼ Tamb and Tnf,out ¼ Tnf were considered [38]. production of thermal energy. It occurs because larger NPs increase
The assumption of the outlet temperature equals to the average NF the absorption of light by the NF, increasing its temperature and
temperature (Tnf) is conservative since it underestimates the ther- reducing the amount of incident radiation on the solar cell. Then, it
mal performance of the PV/T system, and it is expected that it does contributes to decrease the solar cell temperature, increasing the
not significantly affects the PV performance. These variables were electrical efficiency. In contrast, as less amount of light is coming
calculated solving Equations 26e31 for Jmpp, Vmpp, Tpv, Tnf, Tg1, Tg2 into the solar cell, its electrical efficiency tends to decrease. As the
using the MATLAB software. optical effects are predominant, the electrical efficiency decreases
Values of the parameters used in the thermal and electrical for larger NPs.
model are outlined in Table 1. From Fig. 5(b) and (d) for the total exergetic efficiency, it is
verified for silver and gold NFs that it remains practically constant
3.2.1. Nanoparticle diameter up to NPs diameter around 15 nm, and for larger diameters, the
NP diameter is an essential parameter that influences the NF exergy related to the generation of electric energy decreases due to
optical response [48] strongly. In the first modelling stage, the the light scattered and absorbed by the NF, decreasing the photon
volumetric fraction (fv ¼ 0.0001), NF channel thickness (l ¼ 10 mm) flux arriving at the solar cell. To avoid light scattering effects, the
and mass flow rate (m _ ¼ 0.002 kg/s) were kept constant, and only diameter of the silver and gold NPs was kept constant at 10 nm for
the NP diameter was varied from 5 to 50 nm, in order to analyze its the subsequent simulations.
influence on the system efficiencies. The effect of NP diameter on
PV/T system performance is shown in Fig. 5 for silver and gold NPs. 3.2.2. Mass flow rate
From Fig. 5(a) and (c), it is observed that the total efficiency is The mass flow rate is a parameter that contributes significantly
Fig. 5. Energetic and Exergetic efficiencies dependence on NPs diameter for a PV/T system containing (a,b) silver NPs and (c, d) gold NPs.
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to thermal energy production. In the second modelling stage, the decrease because of reduced outlet temperature. Due to this effect,
NP diameter (D ¼ 10 nm), NF thickness (l ¼ 10 mm) and a volu- the exergetic efficiency is employed to understand the effect of the
metric fraction (fv ¼ 0.0001) were kept constant, and the mass flow mass flow rate in the thermal energy conversion. The effect of mass
rate was varied from 0 to 0.02 kg/s, in order to analyze its influence flow rate on the total exergy efficiency of the PV/T system is shown
on the system efficiencies. The effects of mass flow on PV/T system in Fig. 6(d).
energy efficiency are shown in Fig. 6(a) and (b) for silver and gold, From Fig. 6(d) is observed a maximum exergy efficiency. It oc-
respectively. The effects on the system outlet temperature is pre- curs because the thermal exergetic efficiency depends on the mass
sented in Fig. 6(c). flow rate and the NF outlet temperature. The thermal exergetic
From Fig. 6(a) and (b), it is observed that the NF mass flow rate efficiency is proportional to the mass flow rate, leading to rapid
weakly influences the electrical energy produced by the PV solar growth for small mass flow rate values. However, as the mass flow
cell because it does not change the optical NF properties but only rate increases, the temperature decreases due to the reduction of
the heat transfer coefficients. However, from Fig. 6(c), the NF outlet absorption rate of solar energy, increasing the negative term in the
temperature decreases as a function of the mass flow rate since Carnot efficiency as shown in Equation (6), leading to the existence
high mass flow rates increase the NF velocity, making it stay for a of a point of maximum thermal exergetic efficiency. For a high mass
short time in the collector, decreasing solar energy absorption. flow rate, the exergetic efficiency decreases due to increased NF
Despite the PV cell temperature decreases with the mass flow rate, velocity into the DASC, decreasing the light absorption rate. From
it does not affect the electrical efficiency significantly, as shown in Fig. 6(d) the maximum exergetic efficiencies were obtained at
Fig. 6(a and b). m_ ¼ 0.0042 kg/s for silver NFs and m_ ¼ 0.0054 kg/s for gold NFs as
On the other hand, according to Equation (1), the thermal effi- highlighted by the dotted lines.
ciency is directly proportional to the mass flow rate. However, there
is an interplay between the mass flow rate and the outlet tem-
3.2.3. Nanofluid channel thickness
perature, making the thermal efficiency increases rather than
From the result obtained in the previous section, it was verified
Fig. 6. Energetic efficiency dependence on mass flow for a PV/T system containing (a) silver NPs and (b) gold NPs. Outlet temperature (c) and exergetic efficiency (d) dependence on
mass flow rate.
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the existence of a maximum exergetic efficiency for a specific mass 3.2.4. Volumetric fraction
flow rate value. However, the NF velocity depends on the mass flow The volumetric fraction is another crucial factor that changes
rate and the cross-sectional area, and the last one depends on the the NF optical and thermal properties, influencing the efficiency.
NF channel thickness. Then, a dependence of the mass flow rate on For the last modelling step, the volumetric fraction dependence on
the channel thickness maximizes the exergetic efficiency. There- the NF channel thickness that maximizes exergy was calculated
fore, in the third modelling stage, the volumetric fraction using the previous results shown in Fig. 9, keeping constant NP
(fv ¼ 0.0001) and NP diameter (D ¼ 10 nm) were kept constant, and diameter (D ¼ 10 nm), varying the volumetric fraction from 0 to
the mass flow rate and the NF channel thickness were varied from 0.001 and the NF channel thickness from 0.1 to 20 mm. The effects
0 up to 0.02 kg/s and 20 mm, respectively. The effects of mass flow of volumetric fraction and NF channel thickness on PV/T system
rate and NF channel thickness on PV/T system performance are performance are shown in Figs. 10 and 11.
shown in Figs. 7 and 8. From Fig. 10(aed), it is observed that the combined increase of
From Fig. 7 is observed that increasing the NF channel thickness, the volumetric fraction and the channel thickness improves the
the solar radiation absorption capacity increases, and consequently, thermal energy production and decreases the generated electric
the thermal energy production is increased and the electric power energy, even with a lower PV cell temperature. It occurs due to the
generation reduced. As shown, the increase in mass flow rate has decreasing of the transmitted light to the PV solar cell, which is
no significant influence on the electricity generation by the PV solar predominant over the cell temperature reduction. On the other
cell. From the exergetic analysis of Fig. 8(aed), a mass flow rate hand, the total energetic efficiency shown by Fig. 10 (e, f) shows
maximizes exergy for each NF channel thickness, highlighted by the regions of maximum efficiency at volumetric fractions and NF
black line. Fig. 8(e and f) also shows that the outlet temperature channel thickness exergetically maximized as a function of the
increases with the increase in NF channel thickness due to NF ab- mass flow rate. From Fig. 11 (a, b) the thermal exergetic efficiency
sorption of solar radiation. The mass flow rates that maximize the was calculated using the outlet temperature shown by Fig. 11 (c, d),
total exergy efficiency as a function of NF channel thickness were where it is observed a NF channel thickness value that maximizes
extracted and shown in Fig. 9. the outlet temperature for each volumetric fraction. From Fig. 11 (e,
f) it is observed that the total exergy has almost the exact value of
Fig. 7. (a, b) Electrical Efficiency and (c, d) Thermal Efficiency dependence on channel thickness and mass flow rate for silver and gold NFs.
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Fig. 8. (a, b) Thermal exergy efficiency, (c, d) Total exergy efficiency, and (e, f) Outlet temperature dependence on channel thickness and mass flow rate for silver and gold NFs.
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w Pel þ Pth
MF ¼ (39)
w Pel;0
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Fig. 10. (a, b) Electrical efficiency, (c, d) Thermal efficiency, and (e, f) Total energetic efficiency dependence on volumetric fraction and channel thickness for silver and gold NFs.
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Fig. 11. (a, b) Thermal exergy efficiency, (c, d) outlet temperature and (e, f) total exergetic efficiency dependence on volumetric fraction and channel thickness, for silver and gold
NFs.
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occupying the same area, and the MF is higher than the unity. Then,
the presented results indicate that the appropriate choice of the
operating conditions of PV/T systems containing metallic NFs can
optimize its performance.
Table 2
Maximum energetic and exergetic efficiencies for a PV/T system for different NF channel thickness and NP diameter of 10 nm.
Channel Thickness [mm] Mass Flow Rate [kg/s] Volumetric fraction Energetic Efficiency [%] Exergetic Efficiency [%] MF
Fig. 13. Merit Function for different values of parameters: (a) diameter, (b) mass flow, (c) NF thickness and (d) volume fraction, under the optimization conditions.
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