%0 Journal Article
%@ 0955-2219
%A Infuso, Andrea
%A Corrado, Mauro
%A Paggi, Marco
%D 2014
%F eprints:2302
%I Elsevier
%J Journal of the European Ceramic Society 
%N 11
%P 2713-2722
%T Image analysis of polycrystalline solar cells and modeling of intergranular and transgranular cracking
%U http://eprints.imtlucca.it/2302/
%V 34
%X An innovative image analysis technique is proposed to process real solar cell pictures, identify grains and grain boundaries in polycrystalline Silicon, and finally generate finite element meshes. Using a modified intrinsic cohesive zone model approach to avoid mesh dependency, nonlinear finite element simulations show how grain boundaries and Silicon bulk properties influence the crack pattern. Numerical results demonstrate a prevalence of transgranular over intergranular cracking for similar interface fracture properties of grains and grain boundaries, in general agreement with the experimental observation.