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2. PHD Thesis / Tesis PHD
3. Solar Energy Research Institute / Institut Penyelidikan Tenaga Suria (SERI)

Title:	Development and investigation of a photovoltaic-thermal dual-fluid solar collector with refraction and reflection
Authors:	Baljit Singh Sarban Singh (P78043)
Supervisor:	Chan Hoy Yen, Dr.
Keywords:	Solar collectors Solar energy Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia -- Dissertations Dissertations, Academic -- Malaysia
Issue Date:	3-Oct-2018
Description:	Most of the studies on photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collectors have focused on employment of single working fluids either air or water. Thus, this work is to look into the feasibility of incorporating both fluids, air and water into a PV/T solar collector. This system is able to generate heated air and water, in addition, the electricity. The use of dual fluids enables a broader scope of applications whereby, three modes of operations, namely: air mode, water mode, and the dual-fluid mode can be operated depending on the application requirement. To investigate this type of collector, an improved design of a double-pass concentrating PV/T solar collector which integrates dual fluids (air and water) as the working fluids into the system and Fresnel lens array and Compound Parabolic Concentrators (CPCs) as the concentrating elements. The PV panel was designed and fabricated with p-Si solar cells attached to an Aluminium plate. The collector was tested indoor whereby, a data acquisition tool was fabricated and calibrated. The PV/T collector performance is influenced by the design parameters, operating conditions, and environmental factors. Therefore, a suitable 1-D steady-state mathematical model is developed to predict the collectors performance for further energy optimization purposes. The energy balance equations were solved by iterative means using the inverse matrix method in MATLAB. The model developed is flexible and can be utilized for the dual-fluid and the single-fluid modes. Experimental studies were conducted to analyse the collector performance for both thermal and electrical characteristics. The total efficiency of the PV/T design was computed by considering the 'total equivalent efficiency' for the testing. The solar radiation intensity was set at 450 W/m2, 550 W/m2 and 650 W/m2. Four modes of operation were set based on the fluids mass flow rate variation (Mode A - C). For Mode A and B, (the single fluid mode), the mass flow rate of air and water were set ranging from 0.0035 to 0.03 kg/s and 0.00505 to 0.0333 kg/s, respectively. Meanwhile, for mode C1 and C2 (the dual-fluid mode), either one of the fluids was set to flow at fixed flow rates while the other varied. The experimentally obtained 'total equivalent efficiency' for air and water ranged from 27.7 % to 65.1 % and 31.6 % to 63.5 %, respectively. The higher range of 'total equivalent efficiency' was achieved when the air and water flow rates were fixed at 0.0103 kg/s and 0.0215 kg/s, the efficiencies achieved are ranging from 64.3 % to 70.9 % and 66.9 % to 72.0 %, respectively. From the deviation analysis of the results between the experiment and mathematical model were in good agreement with deviation value of below 6 %, for all the modes. The energy production of the dual-fluid PV/T solar collector is also higher compared to single-fluid collector. Through the simple LCCA, the investment payback period obtained was approximately seven years. Moreover, the energy generated by the PV/T collector was able to mitigate 0.291 ton CO2/kWh emission annually. To conclude, this study provided important contributions to the understanding of PV/T collector technology in which the computer simulation and experimental results have demonstrated the possibilities of integrating both fluids into the same collector.,Ph.D.
Pages:	218
Call Number:	TJ812.S546 2018 3 tesis
Publisher:	UKM, Bangi
Appears in Collections:	Solar Energy Research Institute / Institut Penyelidikan Tenaga Suria (SERI)

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