Numerical investigation of the effects of a copper foam filled with phase change materials in a water-cooled photovoltaic/thermal system

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the thermal performance of a photovoltaic/thermal system, integrated with phase change materials in porous medium. For this purpose, a metal foam was employed as porous medium and the performance of five different PCMs, as organic and inorganic, were examined as well. Moreover, the effects of different key parameters such as the mass flow rate, solar irradiance, inlet water temperature and...