Zahari Ibarahim

A study of PV/T collector with honeycomb heat exchanger

This paper present a study of a single pass photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) solar collector combined with honeycomb heat exchanger. A PV/T system is a combination of photovoltaic panel and solar thermal components in one integrated system. In order to enhance the performance of the system, a honeycomb heat exchanger is installed horizontally into the channel located under the PV module. Air is used as the heat remover medium. The system is tested with and without the honeycomb at irradiance of 828 W/m2 and mass flow rate spanning from 0.02 kg/s to 0.13 kg/s. It is observed that the aluminum honeycomb is capable of enhancing the thermal efficiency of the system efficiently. At mass flow rate of 0.11 kg/s, the thermal efficiency of the system without honeycomb is 27% and with honeycomb is 87 %. Throughout the range of the mass flow rate, the electrical efficiency of the PV module improved by 0.1 %. The improved design is suitable to be further investigated as solar drying system and space heating.

Experimental studies on the thermal efficiency of the single-pass solar air collector with fins

The experimental study on a forced-convective single-pass solar air collector with fins has been conducted. The work is a comparative study of performance analysis of solar collector at different mass flow rate, solar radiation and depth of the air flow channel. The fins attached at the back of absorbing plate to improve the thermal performance of the system. The results showed that the thermal efficiency increase with flow rate to 60% at 730 Wm−2. The study concluded that the thermal efficiency is increased proportion to solar radiation, flow rate and the depth of the channel.

Analytical analysis of solar thermal collector with glass and Fresnel lens glazing

Solar thermal collector is a system that converts solar radiation to heat. The heat will raise the temperature higher than the ambient temperature. Absorber and glazing are two important components in order to increase the temperature of the collector. The thermal absorber will release heat by convection and as radiation to the surrounding. These losses will be reduced by glazing. Other than that, glazing is beneficial for protecting the collector from dust and water. This study discusses about modelling of solar thermal collector effects of different mass flow rates with different glazing for V-groove flat plate solar collectors. The glazing used was the glass and linear Fresnel lens. Concentration ratio in this modelling was 1.3 for 0.1m solar collector thickness. Results show that solar collectors with linear Fresnel lens has the highest efficiency value of 71.18% compared to solar collectors with glass which has efficiency 54.10% with same operation conditions.

The preparation of Copper phthalocyanine thin film on silicon substrate for solar cell application

Nowadays, the organic base solar cell has attracted a lot of interests due to its potential as a low cost solar cell. This paper investigates the potential of the organic material which is copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) as the p-type organic material in the solar cell. The CuPc films have been prepared by spin coating technique on Si-n substrate. The optical properties of CuPc thin film were studied using the UV-Vis-NIR spectrometer in the spectral range 300-800 nm. The CuPc was grown on the glass substrate to study the optical properties. The band gap of the films has been calculated directly from the data plotted. The best properties of CuPc thin film was used to develop an organic / inorganic : Al / Si-n / CuPc / Ag solar cell. The electrical property which is I-V characterization shows the performance and the efficiency of the cell due to the film thicknesses.

Thermal efficiency of single-pass solar air collector

Efficiency of a finned single-pass solar air collector was studied. This paper presents the experimental study to investigate the effect of solar radiation and mass flow rate on efficiency. The fins attached at the back of absorbing plate to improve the thermal efficiency of the system. The results show that the efficiency is increased proportional to solar radiation and mass flow rate. Efficiency of the collector archived steady state when reach to certain value or can be said the maximum performance.

Mathematical analysis method for predicting temperature rise in BIPV

In order to estimate the airflow rate and temperature in the channel of building an integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system, a simplified mathematical method has been derived in which the buoyancy force balances the friction along the channel. The channel is represented as a closed duct and the pressure losses are calculated in a similar fashion to those in a pipe circuit. Pressure losses at ventilation inlets and outlets are calculated using pressure loss factors, Kf. The effect of wind pressure on mass flow rate and temperature in the channel can be estimated with the inclusion of the wind speed pressure into the formulation. The benefit of wind pressure applied normal to the inlet and tangential to the outlet of the channel can be seen. The procedure yields the mass flow rate and temperature directly by solution of a simple cubic equation. This method allows the engineers and scientist to predict optimum configuration of their PV cladding design.