Volume 2: Innovative Solutions for Energy Transitions: Part I

Enhancement of Heat Dissipation From Photovoltaic Cells Inside a 3-D Cabinet to an Ambient Natural Convective Air Stream With Installation of Fins Jen-Chieh Cheng, Yeong-Ley Tsay*, Yong-Lin Zhuang

Abstract

This study proposes a three-dimensional (3-D) model to investigate the detailed characteristics of conjugate conduction-natural convection heat transfer of photovoltaic cells mounted discretely on the bottom wall of a horizontal cabinet. The influences of thermal interaction between air streams inside and outside the cabinet through the conducting walls are explored. Furthermore, the enhancement of cooling performance of photovoltaic cells by using the fins is conducted. Results show that, for the system with 40 photovoltaic cells and Q  =10W, the hot spot temperature drop is about 23 ℃ when the fins Nf = 170 are installed onto the cabinet bottom wall.

Keywords Photovoltaic cell, Thermal interaction, Hot spot temperature, Fin