An experimental study of a photovoltaic thermal air collector (PVTAC): A comparison of a flat and the wavy collector

In this work, a comparative experimental energy and exergy analysis of photovoltaic thermal air collector (PVTAC) with a flat plate (model-I) and wavy plate (model-II) as a solar thermal collector is performed. Integration wavy plate is expected to enhance the rate of redistribution of fluid flow and thus to enhance the heat extraction rate. Thereby helps to control the temperature of the PV module during higher solar insolation, during which the conversion efficiency of the PV module tends to decrease. The experimental investigation of performance enhancement of PVTAC is carried out at different values of airflow rates of 0.0047-0.0165 kg/s. Results indicate that the highest overall thermal energy and overall thermal exergy of the PVTAC system are obtained during noontime. Comparative analysis indicates, at noon, model-II provides a higher yield of thermal energy, exergy, and net electrical energy by 16%, 27.4%, and 1.2% than that of model-I. Presence of the wavy plate increases the magnitude pressure drop for model-II than that of model-I. Despite meeting the requirement of higher pumping power, model-II provides 8.4% and 1.3% higher overall thermal efficiency and overall exergy efficiency than that of the model-I.