Performance enhancement of PVT modules using bi-fluid (air/CuO–water-based nanofluid) and fins: energy and exergy analysis

Abstract The limited efficiency of photovoltaic/thermal (PVT) modules represents an obstacle to their spread at the commercial level. Therefore, the present study aims to develop the performance of PVT modules using the double exchangers with fins that use bi-fluid coolants (air and CuO-water-based nanofluid with different concentrations). To achieve this idea, this study presents a 3-D numerical investigation and comparative performance analysis of two PVT modules incorporating finned double exchangers with the third case of PVT modules incorporating double exchangers without fins (reference case); these three configurations use bi-fluid coolants (air and CuO–water-based nanofluids with different concentrations). The first configuration of PVT modules incorporating finned double exchangers contains 24 fins, while the second configuration employs 48 fins. Findings demonstrate that the thermal efficiency of PVT modules incorporating double exchangers without fins reached 63.28%, but for using the finned double exchangers the thermal efficiency of PVT modules increased to reach 72.65% and 78.19% for using 24 fins and 48 fins, respectively at 1% CuO-water-based nanofluid concentration. The results showed that the PVT modules incorporating finned double exchangers that contain 48 fins represent the most effective model that achieves the highest overall thermal efficiency with an improvement of 23.57% compared to the reference case without fins. Graphical abstract