Experimental and numerical evaluation of an air-cooled photovoltaic-thermal collector with a perforated polymethylmethacrylate cover

This study experimentally and numerically examines an air-cooled photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collector utilizing a perforated polymethylmethacrylate ( PMMA) cover as an innovative airflow management strategy for PV cooling. A numerical model was built using COMSOL Multiphysics, and a parametric numerical study was performed to investigate the impact of operating (air mass flow rate) and geometric parameters (top and bottom channel height, channel length, number and diameter of perforation holes) on the distributions of PV and air temperatures, airflow dynamics, and pressure drop. Furthermore, the Taguchi method, along with ANOVA, was also used to rank the effects of the parameters statistically and find the best levels for each parameter. The experimental results indicated that the proposed PV/T configuration lowered the PV surface temperature by 1.4 to 7.5 °C (average 4.8 °C) and improved the gross electrical efficiency by 0.10 to 0.48% (average 0.31%). The measured thermal efficiency varied between 34% and 66%, while net total efficiency approached 75.3% under the optimal operating condition. The parametric and Taguchi analyses indicated that the number of perforation holes was the most influential factor affecting the total efficiency, followed by the air mass flow rate. In contrast, the pressure drop was governed primarily by the air mass flow rate and the bottom channel height. The statistical results indicate that appropriate selection of perforation density and airflow rate is essential to balance enhanced PV cooling with acceptable pressure losses. Overall, the experimental and numerical results show that the proposed airflow-entry-based configuration offers competitive cooling performance and could be a good alternative to traditional air-based PV/T designs.