LAUSR

Abstract In this work, a bi-dimensional numerical simulation of the turbulent natural convection for cooling of the solar panel in a new concept of hybrid photovoltaic/thermal solar collector by integration of a chimney tower has been analysed. The hydrodynamic flow field is governed by the Navier–Stokes equations in the fluid region, thermal field by the energy equation. The standard k-e turbulence model is used for describing the turbulent fluctuations of velocities and scalar quantities. The Influences of the dimensionless geometric parameters, such as the collector diameter ratio (Dc∗), the absorber length (La∗) and the chimney tower diameter ratio and the chimney tower height (Dt∗, Ht∗) on the flow features and heat transfer rate are presented. The obtained results show that the optimum dimensionless geometrical parameters of the new hybrid system proposed (La∗ = 0.625, Dc∗ = 3, Ht∗ = 0.625, and Dt∗ = 2) produce an improvement in the heat transfer rate of 78.13% compared to the base case, for Ra = 5 × 106. Correlations of the average Nusselt numbers are obtained and discussed.