Design of a jet impingement cooling device for densely packed PV cells under high concentration

A cooling device based on jet impingement is proposed for cooling of densely packed photovoltaic cells under high concentration. The device consists of an array of jets where the cooling fluid is drained around the sides in the direction normal to the surface. The local and average heat transfer as well as pressure drop of the device is measured. A model is proposed which predicts the pumping power required for a given average heat transfer coefficient and device configuration. This model forms part of an optimised design process which is outlined. It is shown that the inherently nonuniform heat transfer distribution of jet arrays has little effect on the expected electrical performance of the PV array. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.