Flow Control Tactics for Photovoltaic Modules: Coherent Structure and Heat Shedding Amplification

Solar photovoltaic systems have become the fastest growing renewable technology in the last several years. However, large-scale systems are at the mercy of their external environments, where extreme heating and wind-flung debris impact their efficiency and useable life. The work in this dissertation presents studies aimed to both understand and mitigate for these effects by identifying the underlying physics which govern them. Exploring flow control as a tactic to combat environmental heating, collective work discusses the role of turbulent fluid dynamics within large-scale systems as pertains to convective heat transfer, turbulent structure formation, and particle-laden environments. Wind tunnel experiments on a two-panel model array compare fundamental wake behavior to that of arrays equipped with vortex generators and flow deflectors. The role of flow control in wake modification and subsequent surface shearing is related to variations in convective heat transfer using flow field measurements in the regions surrounding the downstream panel. Impacts on the turbulence kinetic energy budget and associated coherent structures are examined using reduced-order modelling in the panel wakes and at the panel surface, informing the mechanisms responsible for cooling. Framework is presented for understanding how panel turbulence couples with particle debris fields through Voronoï analysis and lacunarity-based heterogeneity. This work motivates flow control as passive mitigation for adverse environments and introduces new perspectives toward understanding the complex nature of industrial photovoltaic systems.