Enhancing Thermal Performance and Energy Efficiency in Photovoltaic Thermal-Phase Change Material Systems: A Numerical Investigation of Fin Geometry Variations

Combining Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) technology with Phase Change Material (PCM) offers an effective solution to improve energy efficiency by simultaneously utilizing electrical energy and solar heat under 33 ℃ ambient tropical conditions.This study aims to evaluate the effect of fin geometry variation on the thermal performance and electrical efficiency of paraffin-based Photovoltaic Thermal-Phase Change Material (PVT-PCM) systems in tropical conditions, using ANSYS Fluent and Transient Thermal-based numerical simulation approaches.Three geometric configurations were analyzed, namely finless, triangular fin, and trapezoidal fin, with simulations performed at variations in solar radiation intensity between 400 and 1000 W/m².The simulation results showed that the trapezoidal fin shape produced the highest thermal efficiency of 15.42%, while the triangular shape was more effective in maintaining an even temperature distribution.Statistical analysis using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) method indicates that the intensity of solar radiation and the geometric design significantly affect thermal efficiency (P-value < 0.05).These findings provide a solid scientific basis for developing PVT-PCM designs that are more efficient and adaptive to tropical environmental conditions, as well as broaden the understanding of the importance of thermal structure optimization in solar energy storage systems.