Search

CFD technology isused to simulate the PV/T air collector with gradually expanding and shrinking channels, and thegradually expanding and shrinking channels have influence on the temperature of the heat absorbing plate and the temperature outlet air of the PV/T air collector is analyzed.The resultshowsthat the expanding and shrinking channels have adverse effectson the massairflow in the collector,causing the temperature of the heat absorption plate to rise.Increasing the mcan effectively reduce the temperature of the heat absorption plate and enhancethe photoelectricefficiency of the system,and thetemperatureof air outlet will be enhanced.However, themassflowhas greater influence on the outlet temperature, and the increase of the mass flowmakes the outlet temperature decreasemore obvious. As the air mass flow increases, the temperature difference between m=0.0081and m=0.0169will increase. When the massflow is 0.0029kg/s, the temperature difference is 1.69℃; when the massflow is 0.0169, the temperature difference is 2.35℃.

A numerical study of heat and mass transfer characteristics of a two-inlet PV/T air collector is performed. The influence of thermal characteristics and efficiency is investigated as the area ratios of inlet and outlet of the single channel with two inlets are changed. The design of the two-inlet PV/T air collector can avoid the poor heat transfer conditions of the single inlet PV/T air collector and improve the total photo-thermal efficiency. When the inlet/outlet cross-sectional area ratio is reduced, the inlet air from the second inlet enhances the convection heat transfer in the second duct and the temperature distribution is more uniform. As the cross-sectional area of the second inlet increase, the maximum heat exchange amount of the two-inlet PV/T air collector occurs between the inlet and outlet cross-sectional area ratio L=0.645 and L=0.562.