Performance of a Water-Based Photovoltaic/Thermal Module
Abstract
A 3D coupled thermal-optical model was used to simulate the solar ray-tracing, heat transfer and fluid flow in a water-based photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) module. All layers of the PV/T module were simulated along with their optical and thermal properties as well as the greenhouse effect between the glass cover and PV cells. The Navier-Stokes and energy equations were solved in the thermal part of the modeling and the discrete ordinate (DO) model using two-band radiation model were employed in the optical part, simultaneously. Then, the effects of number of the tubes and the fluid mass flow rate in the cooling part of the PV/T module were studied using the proposed model.