TY  - JOUR
UR  - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876610213013969
Y1  - 2013///
JF  - Energy Procedia
AV  - none
SP  - 506 
KW  - Photovoltaics; Thermoelasticity; Fracture Mechanics;    Contact Mechanics; Computational methods
ID  - eprints2044
N2  - Abstract Micro-cracking in polycrystalline Silicon is a serious concern for the durability of photovoltaic (PV) modules due to the resulting electrical power-loss. In this contribution, a thermo-mechanical cohesive zone model is proposed to predict the evolution of micro-cracks under the action of mechanical and thermal loads. The classical nonlinear cohesive zone approach, used in fracture mechanics to depict the phenomenon of cracking as a result of progressive breakage of atomic bonds, is extended to thermo-elastic fields. The additional thermal resistance of micro-cracks due to imperfect bonding is estimated according to an analogy with a contact mechanics formulation, where the dependency on the crack opening is suitably accounted for. A numerical example shows the applicability of the proposed approach to practical problems. 
EP  -  515
TI  - Numerical modelling of microcracking in PV modules induced by thermo-mechanical loads 
PB  - Elsevier
VL  - 38
SN  - 1876-6102
A1  - Paggi, Marco
A1  - Sapora, Alberto
N1  - This article belongs to a special issue: Proceedings of the 3rd International conference on crystalline silicon photovoltaics (SiliconPV 2013), edited by R. Brendel, A. Aberle, A. Cuevas, S. Glunz, G. Hahn, J. Poortmans, R. Sinton and A. Weeber 
ER  -