Investigation of the Impact of Attack Angle of Rectangular Winglet Vortex Generator on Heat Transfer in Solar PV Cooling Model

Passive cooling of solar PV panels is increasingly developing, and studying the effect of heat transfer is exciting. This especially involves the Rectangular Winglet Vortex Generator (RWVG), used as convective cooling to lower the panel temperature. This study aims to determine the effect of RWVG angle of attack on the convection heat transfer coefficient and thermal performance that occurs in the solar PV cooling model. This research was conducted using the experiment to test the ability of RWVG to reduce heat on the surface of the solar PV model. A single configuration was used as the arrangement of RWVG by testing variations in angle of attack (β) of 30°, 50°, 60°, and 70°, respectively. The study was done by varying Reynolds number conditions (𝑅𝑒) 724, 1086, 1448, and 1810, as well as using a thermal camera to visualize temperature changes. The performance of the solar PV cooling model with RWVG is compared with that without RWVG. The results reveal that installing RWVG under these Reynolds number conditions can increase the convection heat transfer on the surface of the solar PV model. The highest convection heat transfer coefficient increase reached 43.2% for 𝑅𝑒 = 724. However, the lowest increase occurs at 𝑅𝑒 = 1810, reaching only 10%. RWVG with β = 50° produces the best thermal performance for testing each condition Reynolds number.