Numerical Simulation on Photovoltaic and Thermal Performance of a Low Concentrated PV/T Component

For effectively predicting heat transfer performance of a low concentrated photovoltaic and thermal （PV/T ）component, a mathematical model was established for the heat transfer process of PV/T component in this paper. The temperature distributions of photovoltaic cells and cooling fluid were simulated numerically, and the photovoltaic conversion efficiency and comprehensive performance of solar were studied. The influences of solar radiation intensity and inlet velocity of cooling medium on temperature distribution and generating efficiency of photovoltaic cells were explored as well. The simulation results show that, with the increase of solar radiation intensity, the generating efficiency of photovoltaic cells decreases due to the gradual rise of their surface temperatures. While, when the inlet velocity of the cooling medium increases, the surface temperatures of photovoltaic cells gradually reduce because of enhancement of convective heat transfer process. Then the surface temperature distribution of cells tends to be uniform, the generating efficiency becomes higher, and the comprehensive efficiency of PV/T component is significantly improved. Moreover, when the inlet velocity of working medium is greater than 0.2 m/s, the cooling effect of further increasing inlet velocity on photovoltaic cells is relatively weak, so it will not have significant impacts on the power generation efficiency of PV/T component.