Thermomechanical Behavior of Multifunctional GFRP Sandwich Structures with Encapsulated Photovoltaic Cells
Publication: Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 14, Issue 4
Abstract
The feasibility of encapsulating solar cells into the glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) skins of load-bearing and thermally insulating sandwich elements with foam cores has been evaluated. Exposure of the encapsulated cells to artificial sunlight led to a significant temperature increase on the top sandwich surface, which almost reached the glass transition temperature of the resin. Mechanical loading up to serviceability limit loads did not cause any damage to the solar cells. Stresses of less than 20% of the material strength arose in the face sheets due to thermal and mechanical loading up to failure. Composite action through the face sheets with encapsulated cells was maintained and no debonding between face sheets and foam core was observed. Thanks to the superior mechanical and thermal sandwich behavior, thin-film silicon cells are more appropriate than polycrystalline silicon cells for use in multifunctional GFRP sandwich structures, although they are less efficient.
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Acknowledgments
The writers would like to thank the Swiss Innovation Promotion Agency CTI for its financial support (Grant No. UNSPECIFIED8002.1 DCS-NM), Flexcell for providing the thin-film silicon cells, Scobalit Composites for fabricating the sandwiches, the EPFL Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory (LESO-PB) for the light transmission tests and use of the artificial sunlight exposure setup, the EPFL Laboratory of Polymer and Composite Technology (LTC) for the DMA tests, and Mr. P. Zhu for assistance in the laboratory.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 14 • Issue 4 • August 2010
Pages: 470 - 478
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: May 5, 2009
Accepted: Dec 19, 2009
Published online: Feb 6, 2010
Published in print: Aug 2010
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