Abstract
When the sun shines on solar panels, it gives out energy that can be converted to electricity. Solar panels are a combination of solar cells which are made of silicon. Silicon has the ability to use photovoltaic effect and produce electricity. However, the excess of heat has a reverse impact on silicon and reduces its efficiency. The heat generated by PV cells should be controlled in order to sustain the efficiency of the PV panels. Reducing this heat has been a great challenge for solar power companies. Heat sinks have been used for a long time to cool down computer and electronics components and they could be used for solar cells as well. When an aluminum water cooled heat sink is attached to a solar panel, the heat sink works as a heat exchanger and reduces the temperature by giving the heat away to water. Instead of having a hot water system in the house, the water that comes out of the heat sink could be gathered in a water tank and be used for every day needs. This thesis focuses on how to efficiently control the heat transfer rate between the heat sink and working fluid along with other parameters such as pumping power, uniform temperature distribution, and thermal resistance of a heat sink called Distributor-C. The basic heat sink design of Distributor-C is taken from the scheme of Distributor-A, a heat sink design with the highest efficiency among all eight heat sink designs. In order to increase the overall efficiency of the heat sink, Distributor-C has small changes compared to Distributor-A design. The aim of this thesis is to test different designs of Distributor-C to find the best design in terms of heat dissipation, pressure drop, thermal resistance, pumping power, and uniform temperature distribution. The study is done using CFD Ansys. The results give a better understanding of heat transfer rate, pumping power, temperature distribution uniformity, and thermal resistance for different heat sinks designs. It is shown that decreasing the number of microchannels has a direct impact on the heat transfer rate and it causes the heat transfer to decrease. Increasing the velocity results in pressure drop, smaller heat transfer rate, and more pressure drop along the microchannels. The results also address different thermal resistance, and temperature distribution uniformity for different heat sink designs. By having a cooler solar energy system, the overall efficiency of the system increases which reduces the overall cost, making solar energy accessible for consumers.