Characterization of form-stable phase-change material for solar photovoltaic cooling
- PDF / 1,407,622 Bytes
- 10 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 52 Downloads / 151 Views
Characterization of form‑stable phase‑change material for solar photovoltaic cooling M. Senthilkumar1 · K. R. Balasubramanian2 · Ravi Kumar Kottala2 · S. P. Sivapirakasam2 · L. Maheswari3 Received: 30 October 2019 / Accepted: 6 March 2020 © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2020
Abstract Solar PV panel cooling is essential to achieve maximum efficiency of PV modules. Phase-change material (PCM) is one of the prominent options to cool the panel and reduce the temperature, since PCMs have low thermal conductivity. Expanded graphite particles are used to enrich the structure and stability as well as to increase the thermal properties. In the present research work, polyethylene glycol (PEG) 1000 is used as a base material and expanded graphite for inclusive particle. A novel form-stable PEG1000/EG composite PCM mixture is prepared, using impregnation and dispersion method. Expanded graphite and PEG1000/EG sample phase compositions are investigated, using X-ray diffraction technique. No new peak is identified in the composite PCM sample. The surface morphology and structure of EG and PEG1000/EG are investigated, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Chemical stability analysis is done by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Thermal properties of the prepared composite PCMs are analysed by differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and KD2 pro analyser. Results show that addition of EG in various propositions (5%, 10% and 15%) enhances the thermal conductivity of PCM samples from 0.3654 to 1.7866 W mK−1, while melting point and latent heat of fusion of PCM samples are getting reduced. TGA thermographs are used to investigate the thermal stability of the composite PCM samples. TGA curves show that loss of mass happens above the operating temperature, and it is varied with different mass ratios of EG. Characterization of the prepared composite PCM samples is compared and found that PEG1000-85%/EG-15% is the best form-stable PCM, suitable for cooling the solar PV panel as well as to improve the electrical efficiency coupled with a decrease of temperature in the range of 35 °C to 40 °C. Keywords PEG1000 PCM material · Expanded graphite · Characterization · DSC · Thermal storage · Solar PV cooling
Introduction Solar energy is one of the major renewable energy sources. Solar PV panels receive solar incident radiation and convert it into electrical energy with an efficiency factor of 10–16% [1]. Electrical efficiency is decreased by 0.4–0.6% for each increased degree of panel surface temperature [2]. Many researchers performed experiments for removal of heat from the solar PV panels for improving the efficiency by passive * K. R. Balasubramanian [email protected] 1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research, Chennai, India
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India
3
Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, I
Data Loading...
