Mini-Channel Cooling of a Photovoltaic Cell

In this article, cooling of a mono-crystalline photovoltaic cell (PV) having 0,00128 m2 top surface area was studied using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method. The PV cell was exposed to different solar radiation values in both no-cooling and cooling conditions. Mini-channel cooling was performed by means of 12 aluminum rectangular channels having 0,0018 m hydraulic diameter and 40 mm length. Water flow rate in channels was calculated corresponding to the Reynolds numbers ranging from 500 to 2300 and its effect on the cooling was examined. Results show that the temperature of the top surface of PV panel increases up to 57 ？C under no-cooling condition and our analysis revealed that it can be decreased to 25 ？C when the mini-channel cooling is in progress