Thermal performance of an evacuated pv-thermal collector

摘要

This paper presents the thermal evaluation of an evacuated PV/T collector designed to operate with concentrated radiation (20 suns). Finite volume 3D numerical computations have been carried out in order to study the convective phenomena into the collector casing and to test the performance of the PV/T collector with air and argon at several inclinations and pressure conditions. Collector thermal losses decrease in around 40% when air pressure is reduced from 10{sup}5 Pa to 10{sup}4 Pa. Lower heat losses for all range of pressures are obtained when air is replaced by argon.