Reducing the building consumption passes through : energy saving, energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources for a local production of electricity. For the last point, the building integrated photovoltaic systems represent a promising solution. However, electrical yield and life time of silicon solar cells decrease with the increase of its operating temperature, that is why integrated configurations which limits cell overheating must be developed. The solution considered is the double-skin façade configuration : photovoltaic panels are separated from the building wall(or roof) by an opened air channel. This induces a natural convection flow that cools the rear surface of the photovoltaic panels. This flow can also be used for natural ventilation of buildings in summer or for air preheating in winter. This experimental study is part of a project on photovoltaic double-skin façades. In this project, each physical phenomena are analysed separately first, and the coupling between the different phenomena are studied in a second time. This thesis deals with the natural convection into the vertical double-skin façades. The system is modelled by a vertical channel with isoflux heating at the two mains walls. An experimental apparatus was developed in the laboratory for studying natural convection in water in a vertical channel. Water is used as the working fluid to avoid radiative heat transfer and obtain a pure convective flow. The channel is 65 cm high with an adjustable gap. It is placed in a 1.5 m high glass tank filled with 160 L of distilled water. The main walls are heated through 24 independant electrical heaters maintaining a constant heat flux, which allows differents boundary condition (symmetrical, asymmetrical, uniforme, alternated, etc). Heat flux and temperature measurements are made at the walls. The velocity (horizontal and vertical) and temperature of the flow are measured through a two components Laser Doppler Velocimetry system combined with a micro-thermocouple (25 μm diameter). This apparatus is described in details and the measurement uncertainties were characterized. The symmetrical uniform heating configuration was studied here with the analyse of velocity and temperature profiles in the channel for several input power (46 W to 562 W). These profiles show a change in flow regime in the channel that is analysed with turbulent quantities along the channel. Moreover, the pressure is estimated in the channel from the analysis of all the terms of the momentum conservation equations.
