A Three-Dimensional Finite Element Based Dynamic Thermal Model of PV Modules with an Improved Thermal Network

This paper describes a simple and efficient way to develop, and to implement a 3-D finite element (FE) based dynamic thermal model for PV modules, without an active cooling system. The 3-D model has been developed very closely to represent an actual PV panel. This dynamic thermal model can also be used for steady-state analysis too. An improved thermal network has been proposed and implemented in this work, which provides a more realistic approach towards heat dissipation from a PV module to its surroundings. Compared to typical classical thermal networks used in the literature, the proposed network improves the prediction accuracy of the thermal model significantly. The root mean square error (RMSE) between the simulated and the experimental data was found to be only 0.69 degrees C for the improved thermal network and 3.12 degrees C for the typical classical thermal network. It was also shown that ignoring the heat dissipation from the sides of a PV panel has a negligible effect on the prediction accuracy of the thermal model.