الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract This thesis employed numerical analysis to study a high concentrator triple junction solar cell’s performance enhancement by applying a cooling system on its bottom surface. The cooling strategy employed is based on a thermoelectric generator (TEG), which partially uses waste heat in power generation, leading to the development of a passively cooled TJ HCPV/TEG hybrid power generating system. The presence of temperature mismatch across its surfaces is required for TEG power generation, so a heat sink is provided on the TEG cold ceramic surface to create the required temperature difference while providing additional cell cooling. The current study focused on optimizing the used heat sink dimensions to develop maximum performance while retaining minimum system dimensions and weight. With the hybrid TJ HCPV/TEG system, two heat sink configurations were used: the first was an aluminum flat plate heat sink of 2 mm thick with multiple plate dimensions. The second was a 2 mm thick Aluminum finned plate with a fin length of 75 mm and multiple plate dimensions. A comparative study was used to determine the recommended dimensions of each configuration. The study results showed that under harsh ambient conditions (ambient temperature 45 °C and wind speeds of 1 m/s), the uncooled TJ HCPV has a maximum applicable solar concentration of 33.5 suns with a maximum cell power output of 1.286 W/cm2 of TJ cell area. The application of TEG improved system performance. The overall system power output reached 2.179 W/cm2 at a concentration ratio of 57 suns, reflecting an increase in system power output of 69.44 % without further cooling. A comparative study of the flat plate heat sink dimensions revealed that increasing the plate dimensions gives a higher system performance in reverse of the system This thesis employed numerical analysis to study a high concentrator triple junction solar cell’s performance enhancement by applying a cooling system on its bottom surface. The cooling strategy employed is based on a thermoelectric generator (TEG), which partially uses waste heat in power generation, leading to the development of a passively cooled TJ HCPV/TEG hybrid power generating system. The presence of temperature mismatch across its surfaces is required for TEG power generation, so a heat sink is provided on the TEG cold ceramic surface to create the required temperature difference while providing additional cell cooling. The current study focused on optimizing the used heat sink dimensions to develop maximum performance while retaining minimum system dimensions and weight. With the hybrid TJ HCPV/TEG system, two heat sink configurations were used: the first was an aluminum flat plate heat sink of 2 mm thick with multiple plate dimensions. The second was a 2 mm thick Aluminum finned plate with a fin length of 75 mm and multiple plate dimensions. A comparative study was used to determine the recommended dimensions of each configuration. The study results showed that under harsh ambient conditions (ambient temperature 45 °C and wind speeds of 1 m/s), the uncooled TJ HCPV has a maximum applicable solar concentration of 33.5 suns with a maximum cell power output of 1.286 W/cm2 of TJ cell area. The application of TEG improved system performance. The overall system power output reached 2.179 W/cm2 at a concentration ratio of 57 suns, reflecting an increase in system power output of 69.44 % without further cooling. A comparative study of the flat plate heat sink dimensions revealed that increasing the plate dimensions gives a higher system performance in reverse of the system This thesis employed numerical analysis to study a high concentrator triple junction solar cell’s performance enhancement by applying a cooling system on its bottom surface. The cooling strategy employed is based on a thermoelectric generator (TEG), which partially uses waste heat in power generation, leading to the development of a passively cooled TJ HCPV/TEG hybrid power generating system. The presence of temperature mismatch across its surfaces is required for TEG power generation, so a heat sink is provided on the TEG cold ceramic surface to create the required temperature difference while providing additional cell cooling. The current study focused on optimizing the used heat sink dimensions to develop maximum performance while retaining minimum system dimensions and weight. With the hybrid TJ HCPV/TEG system, two heat sink configurations were used: the first was an aluminum flat plate heat sink of 2 mm thick with multiple plate dimensions. The second was a 2 mm thick Aluminum finned plate with a fin length of 75 mm and multiple plate dimensions. A comparative study was used to determine the recommended dimensions of each configuration. The study results showed that under harsh ambient conditions (ambient temperature 45 °C and wind speeds of 1 m/s), the uncooled TJ HCPV has a maximum applicable solar concentration of 33.5 suns with a maximum cell power output of 1.286 W/cm2 of TJ cell area. The application of TEG improved system performance. The overall system power output reached 2.179 W/cm2 at a concentration ratio of 57 suns, reflecting an increase in system power output of 69.44 % without further cooling. A comparative study of the flat plate heat sink dimensions revealed that increasing the plate dimensions gives a higher system performance in reverse of the system mass increase. The system performance is improved till plate dimensions of 150×150 mm2 , with any further increase in plate dimensions having little performance boost compared to the increase in overall system mass. The same investigation was done on the finned plate heat sink, yielding optimal finned plate dimensions of 50×50 mm2 , with both configurations at recommended dimensions giving a similar thermal and electrical performance. The hybrid TJ HCPV/TEG with heat sink at recommended dimensions provides a maximum applicable concentration ratio of 160.7 suns with a maximum hybrid system power output of 6.17 W/cm2 representing a 379.78 % and 183.16% increase in system power output over the uncooled TJ HCPV and hybrid TJ HCPV/TEG system, respectively. A study was also conducted to reduce the use of finned plate heat sink materials with a relatively small shortage in system performance. Using the cut angle of 44° reduces the system mass by 14.4 %, with only a 1.4 % decrease in applicable concentration ratio compared to the uniform length finned plate heat sink |