COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION TOOLS FOR BUILDING INTEGRATED PHOTOVOLTAICS (BIPV)

Youssef, Amr Mamdoh Ali; Reffat, Rabee Mohamed; Zhai, Zhiqiang (John); Eid, Mohamed Abd-Elsamie

doi:10.21608/jesaun.2016.117607

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION TOOLS FOR BUILDING INTEGRATED PHOTOVOLTAICS (BIPV)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

¹ Department of Architectural Engineering, Assiut University, Assiut 71518, Egypt.

² Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (CEAE), University of Colorado, UCB 428, ECOT 441, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.

10.21608/jesaun.2016.117607

Abstract

A growing attention has been paid to building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) from both architectural and engineering favorability. There are various computational tools developed to provide computations to optimize BIPVs and often simulations for predicting their performance. This provides a great potential for designers to have different helpful tools to be utilized. This paper introduces a comparative analysis of the most common computational tools that compute or simulate main parameters of BIPVs: building energy consumption, solar exposure radiation flux and PV system performance. These computational tools are classified based the method of processing the inputs and compared using evaluation criteria. Also, optimization algorithms that can be used in optimizing BIPVs have been compared. This comparative analysis helps designers to determine better tool/s and algorithm/s for their design cases and required optimization for BIPV. The main findings of this study are the capabilities, limitations, advantages and disadvantages of each computational tool and optimization algorithm presented, in addition to the best selections among them via a comparative analysis to be used for different design cases.

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