Electromagnetic–Thermal Co-Optimization Models for Hybrid Solar Collectors under Spectral Variability

Abstract

The use of hybrid solar collectors to combine optical and thermal energy provide a promising future direction in the high-efficiency conversion of solar-generated energy, but their operation suffers that spectral mismatch losses and poor correlation between electromagnetic and thermal design goals. A majority of available strategies optimize optical absorption and thermal extraction separately and ignore the high multiphysics interactions that are created by wavelength-dependent solar irradiance and temperature-dependent materials properties. The paper will show the consistent overlay of electromagnetic and thermal co-optimization scheme of hybrid solar collectors present in realistic spectral variability. The suggested method combines the wavelength-resolved electromagnetic modelling with the coupled thermal transport analysis that allows transformation of spectrally selective optical absorption into heat generation on a spatial basis. A coupled multiphysics model is constructed, which has a bidirectional interaction to obtain a thermal feedback of electromagnetic response, and assure physically consistent performance assessment in different spectral conditions. It is on this basis that a multi-objective co-optimization approach is developed aiming at jointly maximising spectral absorption efficiency and thermal energy recovery, and meeting temperature and material constraints. We have used numerical data to show that the co-optimised designs, which the present paper suggests, are capable of much better combined energy conversion efficiency and more resistant to spectral variations than more traditional mono-physics optimization strategies. The given framework not only offers practical design knowledge on the next-generation hybrid solar collectors but also offers the basis of scalability in terms of multiphysics-based optimization of solar energy systems.