Optimization and Evaluation of Naturally Ventilated BIPV Façade Design

Abstract

To improve the photovoltaic (PV) power generation, the temperature control measures and optimization of BIPV systems are critical, particularly in tropical weather. There are two categories of cooling mechanisms, i.e. passive and active cooling. In the present study, a simplified numerical model is set up to evaluate the effect of passive cooling of BIPV façades with various configurations, including the PV periphery openings (i.e. area ratio), behind air cavity depth, wind velocity and attack angle (0 to 90 degrees) on the cell temperature of BIPV module. A parametric study is performed. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is applied to predict the cell temperatures under various BIPV façade configurations and environmental conditions. The results of the CFD model show that in the case where the areas of the top and bottom openings are equal, there is limited air ventilation at the behind air cavity. However, the BIPV surface temperature has a significant drop when the inlet opening at the bottom is enlarged, compared with that of the same area of inlet and outlet. Changing the wind attack angle from 0º to 60º has limited effect on the BIPV cell temperature, which results in a variation of less than 5 ºC. However, a dramatic temperature drop of around 15ºC is observed when the attack angle is larger than 60º. The influence of air cavity depth is studied with the fixed top and bottom opening size ratio. By varying the air cavity depth from 30 to 200 mm, a lower PV cell temperature can be achieved.