Numerical investigation of passive stabilization of the surface temperature using PCM and metal foam

Abstract

Stabilization of the temperature of PVs is of great importance, due to strong relation between operating temperature and its efficiency. Due to low thermal conductivity of PCM, intensification of heat transfer to the operating material is needed. The four fully passive PV’s temperature stabilization systems, based on the phase change material (PCM) are numerically investigated in this paper. Apart from the natural convection promotion, intensification of heat transfer is done with aluminium fins and aluminium foam. The simplified computational model based on the equilibrium formulation of energy transport equation, taking into account viscous and inertial fluid flow resistances in the porous material, is formulated and solved with the general purpose software - ANSYS Fluent. Proposed model is succesfully verified by comparing the results with available in literature numerical solutions.Simulations outcomes are presented, the temperature and liquid fraction distributions in proposed geometry configurations, temperature variations determined in selected points and averaged on the heated surface temperature plots. Presented results help to assign the best configuration.