PVTC 2017 PHOTOVOLTAIC TECHNICAL CONFERENCE

MARSEILLE 26-28 APRIL, 2017

Evolution of fatigue damage in flexible

phovotovoltaic modules

C. Borri*, M. Gagliardi, M. Paggi

IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, ITALY
 Outline

Motivation

Fatigue tests

Mathematical model

EL and IR results

Cyclic tests on busbars

Conclusions
 Motivation

Transport Wind

Vibration
Damage

Evaluation Evolution
(IR and EL) (fatigue damage)

New possible
standards
 Experimental setup

Flexible polycrystalline PV module (2 cells)

3 busbars
2 cm displacement in mid-span position
Three point bending cycles (10mm/min)
Pre-load 5 N
EL and IR imaging every 100 cycles
 Mathematical model/I

Model assumptions:

Free composite beam (5 layers)

Fixed displacement in the center (2 cm)

Rigid interfaces

Moment Shear stress

Mathematical model/II
 EL images
300 cycles 1000 cycles

1800 cycles 3600 cycles

 Inactive areas evaluation/I

Worst case scenario

300 cycles

3600 cycles
 Inactive areas evaluation/III

Slower process = (1 )
Plateau
Single diode model, see
Paggi, Corrado, Rodriguez (2013)
Faster process
 EL vs IR comparison

300 cycles 1800 cycles

29.7C

3600 cycles Overall temperature increase over

cycles

Presence of hot spots that correspond

to cracked zones

EL and IR are in general agreement

23C
 Heavily damaged module*
*data from Paggi, Berardone, Infuso, Corrado (2014)

Flat

Mono-Si flexible PV module (10 cells)

2 busbars
21 cm displacement in mid-span position
Pre-damaged with impact tests

Deflected
 Inactive areas evaluation/IV

50 cycles

Slower process
Faster process Plateau after 400 cycles

500 cycles
 Cyclic tests on busbars/I
Low elongations
Busbar samples of 2 cm length
Velocity 0.05 mm/min
20 hysteresis cycles at different
elongations

Effect of temperature

Data from Paggi, Kajari-Schrder, Eitner (2011)

Elastic zone
 Cyclic tests on busbars/II
High elongations

Plastic behavior

Fatigue effect
 Conclusions

Cyclic bending tests on flexible PV modules showed crack propagation

and branching.

Damaged area reached a plateau after 2400 cycles

IR and EL data in agreement

The same behavior was found for different tests and PV modules
(different propagation velocity)

Cyclic tensile tests on busbars showed plastic behavior and effect of

fatigue even for small deformations

Fatigue damage in PV modules can be severe and affects both silicon

and electric contacts
 Acknowledgments

Multi-field and Multi-scale Computational

Approach to Design and Durability of PhotoVoltaic
Modules ERC StG CA2PVM

http://musam.imtlucca.it

Thank you for your attention!