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Design and performance testing of a novel building integrated photovoltaic thermal roofing panel

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  • Building Systems and Components
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Abstract

A novel building integrated photovoltaic thermal (BIPVT) roofing panel has been designed considering both solar energy harvesting efficiency and thermal performance. The thermal system reduces the operating temperature of the cells by means of a hydronic loop integrated into the backside of the panel, thus resulting in maintaining the efficiency of the solar panels at their feasible peak while also harvesting the generated heat for use in the building. The performance of the proposed system has been evaluated using physical experiments by conducting case studies to investigate the energy harvesting efficiency, thermal performance of the panel, and temperature differences of inlet/outlet working liquid with various liquid flow rates. The physical experiments have been simulated by coupling the finite element method (FEM) and finite volume method (FVM) for heat and mass transfer in the operation. Results show that the thermal system successfully reduced the surface temperature of the solar module from 88 °C to as low as 55 °C. Accordingly, the output power that has been decreased from 14.89 W to 10.69 W can be restored by 30.2% to achieve 13.92 W. On the other hand, the outlet water from this hydronic system reaches 45.4 °C which can be used to partially heat domestic water use. Overall, this system provides a versatile framework for the design and optimization of the BIPVT systems.

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Abbreviations

D :

diameter of the tube

L :

characteristic length of the tube

Q :

quantum of the flow meter

Re :

Reynolds number

t :

time (min)

u :

flow speed

V :

kinematic viscosity

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Acknowledgements

This work is sponsored by the National Science Foundation IIP #1941244, CMMI #1762891 and U.S. Department of Agriculture NIFA #2021-67021-34201, whose support is gratefully acknowledged.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Mehdi Zadshir and Xiaokong Yu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mechanics in Energy Engineering, Shanghai Frontier Science Center of Mechanoinformatics, School of Mechanics and Engineering Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200072, China

    Chunlin Wu

  2. Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Columbia University, 610 Seeley W. Mudd 500 West 120th Street, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Mehdi Zadshir, Chunlin Wu, Xiaokong Yu & Huiming Yin

  3. PVT Clean Energy LLC, 7 Industry Street #5, Poughkeepsie, NY, 12603, USA

    Mehdi Zadshir

Authors
  1. Mehdi Zadshir
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  2. Chunlin Wu
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  3. Xiaokong Yu
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  4. Huiming Yin
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Contributions

M. Zadshir: material preparation, data curation, visualization, writing—original draft; C. Wu: simulation, data curation, writing—review & editing; X. Fu: material preparation, data curation; H. Yin: conceptualization, resource, supervision, writing—review & editing.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Chunlin Wu or Huiming Yin.

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The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

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Zadshir, M., Wu, C., Yu, X. et al. Design and performance testing of a novel building integrated photovoltaic thermal roofing panel. Build. Simul. 16, 1863–1879 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-023-1027-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-023-1027-z

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