Author : ABIDI Sihem, SAMMOUDA Habib and BENNACER Rachid

In order to improve the performance of the hybrid photovoltaic/thermal system; we proposed to associate a sensor of solar photovoltaic cells to an exchange. The exchanger is constituted by the two fluids which are separated by the solid wall. The aims of this work are to recuperate the maximum of energy lost by Joule effect using the coolant in contact with photovoltaic cells (fluid 1). The convection and the conduction modes of transfer are established in the level of the roof of the local cavity which filled with air (fluid 2). The phenomena of the heat and the mass transfer have been studied and simulated to obtain the thermal and dynamical fields. The effects of the nature of fluids and of the thermal conductivity of solid are analyzed on the behaviors of coolants and on the efficiency of censor. Results suggested that a better operating performance can be obtained for such system if we optimized the nature and the dimension of coolants (fluid 1) and that of solid wall. The use in the present work, of air as fluid 1 and of a variety of fluid 2, (gallium, EVA, air), proved the necessity of optimize the values of the parameters characterizing this system. In effect, that could efficiently generate electricity and thermal energy simultaneously while keeping a moderate temperature to PV cells.

Keywords: Component Convection; Heat Exchanger; sensor Solar PV cells; coolant