  In the present article, performance of a glazed photovoltaic thermal system
integrated with phase change materials (GPVT/PCM) is numerically examined based
on both energy and exergy viewpoints. The effect of PCM volumetric fraction and
environmental temperature on thermal and electrical characteristics of the
system is evaluated. A three-dimensional model of the system is simulated
transiently in the ANSYS Fluent 18.2 using pressure-based finite volume method
and SIMPLE algorithm selected for coupling pressure and velocity components.
Validity of the numerical results is confirmed based on available data. The
results indicate that PCM melting is more likely far from the riser tube and
absorption of thermal energy be the PCM is mostly effective for filling the PCM
container by around 2/3 of the volume. Increase of the PCM volumetric fraction
reduces the module temperature and enhances the electrical performance of the
system in terms of both energy and exergy efficiencies, while it decreases the
thermal efficiency. An opposite trend is experienced by increase of the
environmental temperature in which the thermal efficiency enhances and the
electrical efficiency declines.
