Thermal management of ultra high concentrator photovoltaic cells: Analysing the impact of sintered porous media microchannel heat sinks

Implementing advanced cooling strategies is essential to maintaining recommended operation conditions, enhancing energy efficiency, and extending the reliability of ultra-high concentrator photovoltaics. This study introduces a new application of sintered porous media as an effective and superior thermal management solution for ultra-high concentrator photovoltaic systems. Furthermore, predictive models for thermal and electrical performance are developed. A comprehensive three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model was developed and verified against experimental work reported to investigate the performance of a novel sintered porous media for thermal management in ultra-high concentrator photovoltaics. Furthermore, the response surface methodology coupled with analysis of variance was used to analyze and comprehensively optimize the thermal management system. The main objective is to develop a predictive model for such systems equipped with a porous cooling system that predicts performance with a concentration ratio of up to 20000 Suns. Predictive models were formulated to outline the relationships between various independent variables: Reynolds number, concentration ratio, direct normal irradiance, wind speed, optical efficiency, fluid inlet temperature, and dependent performance metrics. This study highlights the effectiveness of sintered porous media in heat dissipation and efficiency enhancement in ultra-high concentrator photovoltaics thermal management. The results demonstrate that using sintered porous media compared to conventional channel heatsinks significantly enhances cell thermal management. Specifically, this approach reduces cell temperature by 15.3%, 8.97%, and 2% at concentration ratios of 20000, 10000, and 2000, respectively. Concurrently, implementing the new sintered porous media heatsink improves cell efficiency by 3.1%, 1.5%, and 0.3% for the same respective concentration ratio values.