Abstract & Overview
This research aims to improve thermal performance and compare the performance of two common crystalline PV panel types (Mono and poly). Modules with a back-cooling system were designed and numerically analyzed with SolidWorks and ANSYS-Fluent-2021-R2 for the simulation under Baghdad weather at noon. The cooling system used consists of a phase-change material, paraffin wax (RT55), with a thickness of 5 cm and a heatsink with 33 fins with heights of 10, 20, and 30 mm and thicknesses of 2, 4, and 6 mm. to select the best height of the wax 1, 3, 5, 10, 20 cm examined. The result showed that for polycrystals, the panel temperature was reduced by 8.4°C using PCM and 11.9°C using PCM-fins. Also, output power was enhanced to 200.6 W by 10.2 W, and efficiency improved by 5%. Similarly, using PCM and PCM-fins lowered the temperature of the monocrystalline by 8.3 and 12.5°C, respectively. Therefore, the output power is enhanced to 202.4 W by 10.7 W and improves the electrical efficiency by 5.2%. The results of the study showed that mono had better performance than poly. This result is acceptable and is in good agreement with previous studies.