Investigation of conjugate heat transfer in a photovoltaic wall

In this paper, the results of an experimental and theoretical investigation of combined heat transfer in a photovoltaic wall have been reported. The photovoltaic wall is a prototype, which is composed of two pieces of BP PV panels and a Styrofoam board, and part of the light of radiation energy from the indoor lamps can be converted into electricity. Through experiments, the performance of such a photovoltaic wall has been studied. For the convenience of the treatment of heat radiation, a model in terms of the integration of the absolute temperature has been proposed for the numerical simulation of the combined heat transfer in the test wall. By comparison, it is found that with regard to the thermal radiation of lamp surface, good agreement between the results of simulation and experimental data is obtained. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 33(2): 117–128, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/htj.10136