Evaluating the environmental parameters affecting the performance of photovoltaic thermal system using nanofluid

PV/T is a hybrid system which combines photovoltaic cells and solar collector. It can produce renewable electricity and heat, simultaneously. The aim of the present work is to study the effects of two environmental parameters on the performance of system. Also, the performance of pure water and Al2O3-water nanofluid are compared. The conduction and convection heat transfer are considered by CFD method. The mass, momentum, and energy equations are solved using the ANSYS Fluent. The second order upwind is selected as an interpolation scheme and the pressure-based solver is used for this laminar model. The pressure-velocity coupling method is the SIMPLE. Also, the gradients of the solution variables are determined by the least square cell based. The effects of solar radiation and fluid inlet temperature on the performance are modeled. Increasing the solar radiation reduces electrical efficiency; then, the thermal efficiency becomes fixed after a first rise. Nevertheless, the thermal efficiency remains fixed; the electrical efficiency decreases with increasing the fluid inlet temperature. The findings indicate that the heat transfer coefficient and the efficiency of Al2O3-water nanofluid are greater than pure water. The numerical model is validated by comparing the simulation results with the experimental data in the literature. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.