Laminated glass beams and plates are widely used in glazing and photovoltaic applications. One feature of these structures is a relatively thin and compliant polymeric layer for embedding solar cells. Proper design of photovoltaic glass modules requires an analysis of transverse shear strain distribution in polymeric encapsulant. In this paper a three layered beam with glass skins and a polymeric core is applied as a model structure to evaluate the mechanical properties. Robust relationships between the maximum deflection, the transverse shear strain of the core layer and the applied force in a three-point-bending test of laminated glass beam samples are derived. The first order shear deformation beam theory and a layer-wise type beam theory are applied. An expression for the transverse shear stiffness of the laminated glass beam is presented. The results for the maximum deflection are compared with the results discussed in the literature. Furthermore, a three-dimension al finite element analysis is performed to verify the applied beam theories. Three-point-bending tests for laminated glass beams with core layers from different polymeric materials are performed. The experimental data for the maximum deflection are compared with the derived expressions

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In recent investigations using various analysis methods it has been shown that mechanical or thermal loading of PV modules leads to mechanical stress in the module parts and especially in the encapsulated solar cells. Cracks in crystalline solar cells are a characteristic defect that is caused by mechanical stress. They can lead to efficiency losses and lifetime reduction of the modules. This paper presents two experiments for systematic investigation of crack initiation and crack growth under thermal and mechanical loading using electroluminescence. For this purpose PV modules and laminated test specimens on smaller scales were produced including different cell types and module layouts. They were exposed to thermal cycling and to mechanical loading derived from the international standard IEC 61215. Cracks were observed mainly at the beginning and the end of the busbars and along the busbars. The cracks were analyzed and evaluated statistically. The experimental results are compared to results from numerical simulations to understand the reasons for the crack initiation and the observed crack growth and to allow module design optimization to reduce the mechanical stress

This paper is proposed to enhance the mechanical simulation model for crystalline solar modules by implementing the viscoelastic behaviour of the encapsulation material ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA). The material is characterized by thermo-mechanical analysis (TMA) experiments. Utilizing time-temperature superposition techniques a master-curve is constructed and the coefficients for the Williams-Landel-Ferry (WLF)-function are determined. This experimental data is transfered into a numerical representation and validated with creep bending tests of glass-polymer-glass-laminates. In the final step the viscoelastic model is used for calculating the cell displacement during the lamination process, followed by thermal cycling. The results for thermal cycling are compared with an optical cell-displacement measurement within a photovoltaic (PV) module [1]