• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.551-560
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• 2011

In this paper, a cooling system that includes a heat spreader and a natural convective heat sink is proposed for the cooling of a concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) module. The heat spreader and the natural convective heat sink are designed on the basis of previous analytical investigations. In order to evaluate the proposed cooling system, we conducted experimental investigations varying the heat rate and the inclined angle of the cooling system. From the experimental results, it is found that the proposed cooling system satisfies the design constraints for good operation of the CPV module. Finally, a correlation is suggested for estimating the effects of the heat rate and the inclined angle on the thermal performance of the natural convective heat sink is suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.95-102
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• 2011

In this paper, the thermal performance of a heat spreader module for CPV(Concentrating Photovoltaic) cooling is experimentally investigated. In order to evaluate the thermal performance of the heat spreader module which consists of a Metal PCB and an aluminum alloy heat spreader, experiments are conducted with varying the type of the metal PCB, the thickness of the heat spreader, the inclination angle, and the applied heat flux. To validate the experimental data, three dimensional numerical simulations are performed using the commercial simulation tool in the present work. The experimental results are compared with the corresponding numerical results and are in close agreement with the numerical results. From the experimental results, the temperature difference between the maximum temperature and the ambient temperature increases with decreasing the thickness of the heat spreader and with increasing the applied heat flux. Also, it is found that the inclination angle significantly affects the thermal performance of the heat spreader. the maximum temperature difference of the heat spreader with the horizontal orientation is much larger than that with the vertical orientation.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2015

In the present study, the effects of the heat spreader thickness and the heat sink size on the thermal performance of a cooling device for a concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) module were numerically investigated. Numerical simulation was conducted by using the simulation tool ICEPAK, commercial software based on the finite volume method. Numerical results were validated by comparing the existing experimental data. The thermal performance of a cooling device, which consisted of a heat spreader and a natural convective heat sink, was evaluated with varying the heat spreader thickness and the heat sink size. The geometric configuration of the natural convective heat sink, such as the fin height, the fin spacing, and the fin thickness, was optimized by using the existing correlation. The numerical results showed that the thermal performance of the cooling device increased as the heat spreader thickness or the heat sink size increased. Also, it was found that the spreading thermal resistance plays an important role in the thermal performance of the cooling device which has the localized heat source.