Thermal analysis of a solar wall equipped with photovoltaic cells and phase-change materials

In this paper, the thermal analysis of the solar wall system equipped with photovoltaic cells and phase-change materials (PCM) has been numerically investigated. For the thermal modeling of the system, the energy balance for its various components, including photovoltaic cells, air channel, adsorbent plate, Phase-change material and room are written. The validation of the numerical results is consistent with the experimental data of previous studies. In parametric studies the effect of PCM thickness, inlet air flow rate, collector width and packing factor have been investigated on the increase of room temperature and average system energy efficiency in four consecutive days. Results show that the optimal PCM thickness is 0.05 m. Increasing the PCM thickness reduces the room temperature and the energy efficiency. Increasing the air flow rate decreases the photovoltaic cells temperature and increases electrical efficiency, thereby increasing energy efficiency. However, it reduces room temperature. Therefore, the optimum flow rate of air was obtained 0.04 kg/s. Increasing the collector width, despite increasing room temperature, reduces energy efficiency, so the optimum collector width was 0.7 m. The increase of the packing factor increases room temperature and reduces energy efficiency. Therefore, the optimum packing factor was 0.5.