Predicting encapsulant delamination in photovoltaic modules bridging photochemical reaction kinetics and fracture mechanics

Journal Article · 27 December 2023 · Progress in Photovoltaics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3771 · OSTI ID:2274849

Liu, Kuan  ^[1]; Thornton, Patrick; D'hooge, Dagmar R. ^[2]; Dauskardt, Reinhold H. ^[1]

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1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering Stanford University Stanford California USA
2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering Stanford University Stanford California USA, Department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Engineering Ghent University Ghent Belgium

Abstract Photovoltaic (PV) modules are subjected to environmental stressors (UV exposure, temperature, and humidity) that cause degradation within the encapsulant and its interfaces with adjacent glass and cell substrates. To save experimental time and to enable long‐term assessment with intensive degradation only taking place after many years, the development of predictive models is indispensable. Previous works have modeled the delamination of the ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) encapsulant/glass and encapsulant/cell interfaces under field aging conditions with fundamental photochemical degradation reactions that lead to molecular scission and loss of interfacial adhesion, characterized by the fracture resistance, G _c . However, these models were fundamentally limited in that the following aspects were not incorporated: (i) molecular crosslinking in the field, (ii) synergistic autocatalytic interactions of degradation mechanisms, (iii) connection between degraded encapsulant structure and its mechanical properties, and (iv) rigorous treatment of the plasticity contribution to G _c with finite element models. Here, we present a time‐dependent multiscale model that addresses these limitations and is applicable to a wide range of encapsulants and interfaces. For the reference EVA encapsulant and its interfaces with the glass and cell, the presented model predicts an initial rise in G _c in the first 3 years of field aging from crosslinking, then a subsequent sharp decline from degradation mechanisms. We used nanoindentation to measure the changes in EVA mechanical properties over exposure time to tune the model parameters. The model predictions of G _c and mechanical properties match with experimental data and show an improvement compared to previous models. The model can even predict switches in failure interfaces, such as the observed EVA/cell to EVA/glass transition. We also conducted a sensitivity analysis study by varying the degradation and crosslinking kinetic parameters to demonstrate their effects on G _c . Model extensions to polyolefin elastomer‐ and silicone‐encapsulants and their interfaces are also demonstrated.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: 38259; 32509
• OSTI ID: 2274849
• Journal Information: Progress in Photovoltaics, Journal Name: Progress in Photovoltaics; ISSN 1062-7995
• Publisher: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United Kingdom
• Language: English