Influences of notched fins configuration on thermo-electrical performance of flat solar photovoltaic cell

Flat-plate photovoltaics (PV) are familiar and widely used in various applications due to their simple design, improved performance, and reduced maintenance requirements. However, their electrical performances drop due to the accumulation of heat during high solar radiation. The present research overcomes the above consequence by integrating an aluminium (Al6061) notched fin with semi-circular, square, and triangular patterns, which is placed on the PV back surface in a parallel flow setup. During the investigation, the fin thickness is varied from 1 to 3 mm, the notch depth is 0.5 times the height (H), and a pitch of 70 mm is maintained. The study evaluated the impact of the notched fin configuration and fin thickness on the PV surface temperature, heat transfer coefficient, fin efficiency, V-I characteristics, fill factor, and power conversion efficiency of a flat-plate PV solar cell. The PV setup configured with a semi-circular notch fin of 3 mm thickness exposed better thermo-electrical performance related to the no-fin setup and its behaviours, such as reduced PV surface temperature (38.9 °C), better convective heat transfer coefficient (50.2 W m⁻² K⁻¹), enhanced fin efficiency (87%), superior V-I performance, hiked fill factor (0.758), and higher module efficiency of 17.7%.