Nanofluid-PCM heat sink for building integrated concentrated photovoltaic with thermal energy storage and recovery capability

A new configuration of phase change material (PCM) heat sink has been developed to be combined with a building integrated concentrated photovoltaic (BICPV) system. This new proposed system includes PCM encapsulated in aluminum pack and immersed in nanofluid container to improve thermal conductivity. A comprehensive numerical model was validated and simulated to evaluate thermal and electrical performance of the proposed system for both passive and active cooling conditions. Two different configurations of nanofluidPCM enclosures with single PCM pack or multi-smaller packs were compared with conventional BICPV-PCM system. Melting and solidification of PCM were also studied with solar concentration ratio of 5. In passive cooling, single-pack configuration regulated the silicon temperature of CPV below 78 degrees C with more uniform temperature distribution. Whereas the multi-packs configuration demonstrated 97% phase transition to liquid PCM which provided the highest stored thermal energy. The performance improvement would be attributed to the enhancement of thermal conductivity and natural convection of nanofluid in PCM container. Furthermore, in active cooling condition, the silicon temperature controlled under 43 degrees C with uniform distribution. The nanofluid flow could be solidified up to 97% and 90% of initially melted PCM after 60 min for multi-packs and single-pack configurations, respectively.