Modelling of Encapsulated Phase Change Materials for Improved Thermal Characteristics in Photo-V oltaic/Thermal Solar Collectors

Phase Change Materials (PCMs) have swiftly established themselves as a significant presence in the realm of thermal energy harvesting, thanks to their ability to store energy as latent heat with minimal variations in temperature. This study explores various types of PCMs, encapsulation and their combined thermophysical properties when dispersed in water. Modelling and simulation of said dispersion follows, where the effect of several parameters on the thermal state of the photovoltaiclthermal (PV IT) solar collector is investigated. Several governing equations that represent the behavior and state of the dispersion will be implemented into a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model in ANSYS Fluent. Furthermore, several parameters such as the encapsulated phase change material (ePCM) core and shell size, dispersion volume fraction and other material properties will be investigated to provide quantitative conclusions on the performance of the PV IT solar collector.