Thermal Property Investigation of a Simplified, Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell: Analyzing the Heat Transfer in Solids and Fluids, with a Turbulent Flow, for Open-Circuit Voltage Calculations

Abstract

Utilizing renewable energy sources is a long-term mitigation solution. Electricity generation by photovoltaic (PV) is growing rapidly and PV is at the forefront of the renewable energy revolution. Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) is one of the more popular transparent solar cells used for architectures. Additionally, DSSC is a cost-effective solar cell and simple to manufacture because of the inexpensive materials, which are used in the fabrication processes. This article explores a method to optimize the thermal properties of the DSSC. For the simulation COMSOL Multiphysics software usage has been used and 3- dimensional scheme via numerically solved coupled models – such as heat transfer in solids and fluids, and turbulent flow – in stationary mode have been applied. Boundary conditions have been added and described in great details. For the optimization process, the glass substrate has been modified. The temperature distribution in the volume and in the surface; pressure distribution in the volume; and velocity distribution in the volume have been presented. On the other hand, the temperature distribution, along a line, is extracted from the 3-dimensional geometry, to analyze the thermal behavior and use for further investigation, the electrical behavior of the Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell. The results show that the higher temperature, which is located at the top part of the geometry, is 318 K. The calculated open-circuit voltage of the cell is between 448 mV and 452 mV and the gradient is −2 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚/°𝐶𝐶