Study on the temperature control performance of photovoltaic module by a novel phase change material/heat pipe coupled thermal management system

High photovoltaic (PV) module temperature leads to the degradation of electrical efficiency, and passive PV thermal management systems, such as phase change materials (PCMs) and heat pipes (HPs), have been widely adopted to address this challenge. Due to the low thermal conductivity of PCM and the limited heat exchange capacity in the HP condensation section, this paper proposes a novel configuration for a PV thermal management system utilizing a phase change material/heat pipe coupled module (PV-PCM/HP). The experimental results showed that the performance of the coupled PCM/HP system was superior to that of the single system. A numerical model was developed to simulate and analyze the temperature variation and coupled heat transfer characteristics of the PV-PCM/HP system. The main components of heat transfer gradually change from PCM (PCM-dominated) to HP (HP-dominated), and PCM even plays a negative role during the solidification stage, which means that the coupled thermal management depends on HP only. Four design parameters (the number of HPs, PCM thermal conductivity, PCM phase change temperature, and PCM thickness) of the PV-PCM/HP system are discussed to investigate the effects on the performance of the PV-PCM/HP thermal management system. This shows that the increase in the number of heat pipes and PCM thickness can effectively improve the performance, but they should be determined according to technical and economic analysis. When the PCM thermal conductivity is >2.7 W/(m.K), it has little effect on thermal management performance under the conditions described in this paper. The value of the PCM phase change temperature should be determined according to actual weather conditions, and the purpose is to make the PCM melting period coincide with the period of higher solar radiation and lower phase change temperatures.