Using Established Reliability Methods for Failure Mode Based and Lifetime Equivalent Testing of PV Modules
| Autor: | Löw, R., Zerrer, P., Boedeker, H. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2011 |
| Předmět: | |
| ISSN: | 3533-3537 |
| DOI: | 10.4229/26theupvsec2011-4av.2.17 |
| Popis: | 26th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 3533-3537 Reliability is estimated within the automotive industry by established methods. Transferring this experience to the solar industry enables one to estimate the reliability of PV modules. However, currently PV modules are certified by third-party test laboratories according to standard test sequences which do not necessarily provide full evidence that the product performs adequately within its lifetime of 25 years. This work presents a method for defining tests for PV modules, exemplarily shown for one failure mode which is thermo-mechanical fatigue of solder joints used in PV modules. The temperature changes causing damage were measured on PV modules located in Germany. The measured data was classified into load spectrums (number of temperature cycles and the particular distance between maximum and minimum temperature). The acceleration factor and ageing law of the particular failure mechanism are dependent on the technology and material which is used. This data was obtained from published data for solder joints of electronic devices. Ageing law, acceleration factor as well as load spectrum can be used to compute the stress and the time of the tests. Using this approach within tests, samples are stressed corresponding to the field load. Therefore, the tests are able to represent the lifetime of PV modules. The failure-mode based approach introduced herein represents a method to validate the reliability of a design. Moreover, it highlights that current standard test sequences may either over- or undervalue relevant effects. In the latter case, standard test sequences may not cover all failure modes and may therefore ignore field-relevant problems. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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