Effects of self-cleaning technique and nanofluid cooling on performance of photovoltaic solar unit employing sinusoidal surfaces

The urgent need for electricity generation for both commercial and residential uses can be satisfied by photovoltaic units, but the serious flaws of these units arise from the negative effects of environmental factors like dust, shadow, radiation, and wind on their performance. The present study examines how PV panels operate under dusty conditions, using ANSYS FLUENT software and focusing on steady-state and laminar conditions. This study aims to numerically examine a three-dimensional (3-D) photovoltaic thermal (PV-T) unit with sinusoidal walls (PV-T-SW). The testing fluids examined in current paper are Al2O3-H2O nanofluid and H2O. Under the same initial and boundary conditions, three configurations were tested: a PV module, a straight channel PV-T unit, and the PV-T-SW, which are numerically compared and examined. An important element that declines the power generation efficiency is the deposition of dust on photovoltaic panels. The key novelty of the current study is that it provides a numerical modeling of the impact of dust in the presence and absence of a self-cleaning coating on a photovoltaic thermal system, as well as the optimal cooling mode and configuration. First, suitable temperature management systems are critical for achieving high-efficiency solar photovoltaics, and in heat exchange devices, the employment of corrugated structures has proven to be a helpful strategy because of the benefits of extended surface area. Finally, the electrical (eta ele) and thermal (eta th) efficiency are assessed by taking into account the optical properties of dust deposition and hydrophobic coating. The factors evaluated are the impacts of varying nanofluid concentration, inlet flow Reynolds number (ranging from 500 to 1500), wavy channel amplitude, and wavelengths on cooling performance. The findings revealed that using 4 % water-aluminum oxide as an operating fluid instead of H2O improved the coefficients of heat transfer in the channel by 15.7 %. In addition, at the next step, when water-aluminum oxide was used as a coolant and the sinusoidal channel was examined with different geometrical characteristics, it was discovered that the 9 mm wavelength and 0.8 mm amplitude channel, in comparison to the simple form of the system, had superior heat transfer performance. Furthermore, the obtained data indicate that the eta ele decreased by 40 % as the dust deposition happens, and it was discovered that the coating reduced that negative effect on the glass used to cover solar cells. Because of rising environmental issues and the expense of energy, thermal control of sources of energy that are renewable is becoming more and more important. The findings of this investigation can be used for future PV cooling innovation unit development and optimization.