Modeling Thermal Behavior of Vehicle Integrated Photovoltaics
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Date
2021-05
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
With a changing environment and a massive push toward clean energy and sustainable practices, technological advancements of electric vehicles (EV) are an important step to improve as a society in this area. A current downside of EVs is their limited driving range. With recent developments in photovoltaic (PV) materials and manufacturing technologies and declining PV costs, the integration of PV cells into vehicle exterior bodies as an added power source has become an emerging research area. Unlike conventional PV module installations on roof-tops and power plants, in the case of vehicle integrated photovoltaics (VIPV), PV cells are directly integrated into vehicle body with no convective cooling on the underside. The integrated module can only dissipate heat from the top side, experiencing higher temperatures. Limiting cell temperatures is important as the conversion efficiency of PV cells decreases with increasing temperatures. To maximize VIPV system efficiency and investigate long term structural integrity, understanding the effects of parameters such as drive cycle, location, season, and PV material on module temperature and thereby PV efficiency is key. In this study, the effect of these parameters is investigated using numerical modeling. First a geometric model of a simplified VIPV module was created. To mimic the environmental conditions of an integrated module, representative thermal, electrical, and structural boundary conditions were defined. Using the generated model and boundary condition definitions, governing equations for heat transfer and structural mechanics were solved using the finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics. A systematic study was conducted to isolate the effect of each parameter on module temperature and performance. Though this study, temperatures and resulting thermal stresses of vehicle integrated modules is quantified. Estimating these stressors will help guide module design for high energy yield and service life.
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Keywords
Numerical Modeling, Photovoltaics, Clean Energy