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- All Subjects: engineering
- Creators: Tamizhmani, Govindasamy
- Creators: Mignolet, Marc
Description
The object of this study was a 26 year old residential Photovoltaic (PV) monocrystalline silicon (c-Si) power plant, called Solar One, built by developer John F. Long in Phoenix, Arizona (a hot-dry field condition). The task for Arizona State University Photovoltaic Reliability Laboratory (ASU-PRL) graduate students was to evaluate the power plant through visual inspection, electrical performance, and infrared thermography. The purpose of this evaluation was to measure and understand the extent of degradation to the system along with the identification of the failure modes in this hot-dry climatic condition. This 4000 module bipolar system was originally installed with a 200 kW DC output of PV array (17 degree fixed tilt) and an AC output of 175 kVA. The system was shown to degrade approximately at a rate of 2.3% per year with no apparent potential induced degradation (PID) effect. The power plant is made of two arrays, the north array and the south array. Due to a limited time frame to execute this large project, this work was performed by two masters students (Jonathan Belmont and Kolapo Olakonu) and the test results are presented in two masters theses. This thesis presents the results obtained on the north array and the other thesis presents the results obtained on the south array. The resulting study showed that PV module design, array configuration, vandalism, installation methods and Arizona environmental conditions have had an effect on this system's longevity and reliability. Ultimately, encapsulation browning, higher series resistance (potentially due to solder bond fatigue) and non-cell interconnect ribbon breakages outside the modules were determined to be the primary causes for the power loss.
ContributorsBelmont, Jonathan (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Henderson, Mark (Committee member) / Rogers, Bradley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Potential induced degradation (PID) due to high system voltages is one of the major degradation mechanisms in photovoltaic (PV) modules, adversely affecting their performance due to the combined effects of the following factors: system voltage, superstrate/glass surface conductivity, encapsulant conductivity, silicon nitride anti-reflection coating property and interface property (glass/encapsulant; encapsulant/cell; encapsulant/backsheet). Previous studies carried out at ASU's Photovoltaic Reliability Laboratory (ASU-PRL) showed that only negative voltage bias (positive grounded systems) adversely affects the performance of commonly available crystalline silicon modules. In previous studies, the surface conductivity of the glass surface was obtained using either conductive carbon layer extending from the glass surface to the frame or humidity inside an environmental chamber. This thesis investigates the influence of glass surface conductivity disruption on PV modules. In this study, conductive carbon was applied only on the module's glass surface without extending to the frame and the surface conductivity was disrupted (no carbon layer) at 2cm distance from the periphery of frame inner edges. This study was carried out under dry heat at two different temperatures (60 °C and 85 °C) and three different negative bias voltages (-300V, -400V, and -600V). To replicate closeness to the field conditions, half of the selected modules were pre-stressed under damp heat for 1000 hours (DH 1000) and the remaining half under 200 hours of thermal cycling (TC 200). When the surface continuity was disrupted by maintaining a 2 cm gap from the frame to the edge of the conductive layer, as demonstrated in this study, the degradation was found to be absent or negligibly small even after 35 hours of negative bias at elevated temperatures. This preliminary study appears to indicate that the modules could become immune to PID losses if the continuity of the glass surface conductivity is disrupted at the inside boundary of the frame. The surface conductivity of the glass, due to water layer formation in a humid condition, close to the frame could be disrupted just by applying a water repelling (hydrophobic) but high transmittance surface coating (such as Teflon) or modifying the frame/glass edges with water repellent properties.
ContributorsTatapudi, Sai Ravi Vasista (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Srinivasan, Devarajan (Committee member) / Rogers, Bradley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Photovoltaic (PV) systems are one of the next generation's renewable energy sources for our world energy demand. PV modules are highly reliable. However, in polluted environments, over time, they will collect grime and dust. There are also limited field data studies about soiling losses on PV modules. The study showed how important it is to investigate the effect of tilt angle on soiling. The study includes two sets of mini-modules. Each set has 9 PV modules tilted at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 23, 30, 33 and 40°. The first set called "Cleaned" was cleaned every other day. The second set called "Soiled" was never cleaned after the first day. The short circuit current, a measure of irradiance, and module temperature was monitored and recorded every two minutes over three months (January-March 2011). The data were analyzed to investigate the effect of tilt angle on daily and monthly soiling, and hence transmitted solar insolation and energy production by PV modules. The study shows that during the period of January through March 2011 there was an average loss due to soiling of approximately 2.02% for 0° tilt angle. Modules at tilt anlges 23° and 33° also have some insolation losses but do not come close to the module at 0° tilt angle. Tilt anlge 23° has approximately 1.05% monthly insolation loss, and 33° tilt angle has an insolation loss of approximately 0.96%. The soiling effect is present at any tilt angle, but the magnitude is evident: the flatter the solar module is placed the more energy it will lose.
ContributorsCano Valero, José (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Madakannan, Arunachalanadar (Committee member) / Macia, Narciso (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
High Pressure Superheater 1 (HPSH1) is the first heat exchange tube bank inside the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) to encounter exhaust flue gas from the gas turbine of a Combined Cycle Power Plant. Steam flowing through the HPSH1 gains heat from the flue gas prior to entering the steam turbine. During cold start-ups, rapid temperature changes in operating condition give rise to significant temperature gradients in the thick-walled components of HPSH1 (manifolds, links, and headers). These temperature gradients produce thermal-structural stresses in the components. The resulting high cycle fatigue is a major concern as this can lead to premature failure of the components. The main objective of this project was to address the thermal-structural stress field induced in HPSH1 during a typical cold start-up transient. To this end, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to carry out the thermal-fluid analysis of HPSH1. The calculated temperature distributions in the component walls were the primary inputs for the finite element (FEA) model that performed structural analysis. Thermal-structural analysis was initially carried out at full-load steady state condition in order to gain confidence in the CFD and FEA methodologies. Results of the full-load steady state thermal-fluid analysis were found in agreement with the temperature values measured at specific locations on the outer surfaces of the inlet links and outlet manifold. It was found from the subsequent structural analysis that peak effective stresses were located at the connecting regions of the components and were well below the allowed stress values. Higher temperature differences were observed between the thick-walled HPSH1 components during the cold start-up transient as compared to the full-load steady state operating condition. This was because of the rapid temperature changes that occurred, especially in the steam temperature at the HPSH1 entry, and the different rates of heating or cooling for components with different wall thicknesses. Results of the transient thermal-fluid analysis will be used in future to perform structural analysis of the HPSH1. The developed CFD and FEA models are capable of analyzing various other transients (e.g., hot start-up and shut-down) and determine their influence on the durability of plant components.
ContributorsHardeep Singh (Author) / Roy, Ramendra P. (Thesis advisor) / Lee, Taewoo (Thesis advisor) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This dissertation presents methods for addressing research problems that currently can only adequately be solved using Quality Reliability Engineering (QRE) approaches especially accelerated life testing (ALT) of electronic printed wiring boards with applications to avionics circuit boards. The methods presented in this research are generally applicable to circuit boards, but the data generated and their analysis is for high performance avionics. Avionics equipment typically requires 20 years expected life by aircraft equipment manufacturers and therefore ALT is the only practical way of performing life test estimates. Both thermal and vibration ALT induced failure are performed and analyzed to resolve industry questions relating to the introduction of lead-free solder product and processes into high reliability avionics. In chapter 2, thermal ALT using an industry standard failure machine implementing Interconnect Stress Test (IST) that simulates circuit board life data is compared to real production failure data by likelihood ratio tests to arrive at a mechanical theory. This mechanical theory results in a statistically equivalent energy bound such that failure distributions below a specific energy level are considered to be from the same distribution thus allowing testers to quantify parameter setting in IST prior to life testing. In chapter 3, vibration ALT comparing tin-lead and lead-free circuit board solder designs involves the use of the likelihood ratio (LR) test to assess both complete failure data and S-N curves to present methods for analyzing data. Failure data is analyzed using Regression and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and reconciled with the LR test results that indicating that a costly aging pre-process may be eliminated in certain cases. In chapter 4, vibration ALT for side-by-side tin-lead and lead-free solder black box designs are life tested. Commercial models from strain data do not exist at the low levels associated with life testing and need to be developed because testing performed and presented here indicate that both tin-lead and lead-free solders are similar. In addition, earlier failures due to vibration like connector failure modes will occur before solder interconnect failures.
ContributorsJuarez, Joseph Moses (Author) / Montgomery, Douglas C. (Thesis advisor) / Borror, Connie M. (Thesis advisor) / Gel, Esma (Committee member) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Pan, Rong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Characterization and analysis of long term field aged photovoltaic modules and encapsulant materials
Description
Photovoltaic (PV) module degradation is a well-known issue, however understanding the mechanistic pathways in which modules degrade is still a major task for the PV industry. In order to study the mechanisms responsible for PV module degradation, the effects of these degradation mechanisms must be quantitatively measured to determine the severity of each degradation mode. In this thesis multiple modules from three climate zones (Arizona, California and Colorado) were investigated for a single module glass/polymer construction (Siemens M55) to determine the degree to which they had degraded, and the main factors that contributed to that degradation. To explain the loss in power, various nondestructive and destructive techniques were used to indicate possible causes of loss in performance. This is a two-part thesis. Part 1 presents non-destructive test results and analysis and Part 2 presents destructive test results and analysis.
ContributorsChicca, Matthew (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Rogers, Bradley (Committee member) / Srinivasan, Devarajan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The stability of nanocrystalline microstructural features allows structural materials to be synthesized and tested in ways that have heretofore been pursued only on a limited basis, especially under dynamic loading combined with temperature effects. Thus, a recently developed, stable nanocrystalline alloy is analyzed here for quasi-static (<100 s-1) and dynamic loading (103 to 104 s-1) under uniaxial compression and tension at multiple temperatures ranging from 298-1073 K. After mechanical tests, microstructures are analyzed and possible deformation mechanisms are proposed. Following this, strain and strain rate history effects on mechanical behavior are analyzed using a combination of quasi-static and dynamic strain rate Bauschinger testing. The stable nanocrystalline material is found to exhibit limited flow stress increase with increasing strain rate as compared to that of both pure, coarse grained and nanocrystalline Cu. Further, the material microstructural features, which includes Ta nano-dispersions, is seen to pin dislocation at quasi-static strain rates, but the deformation becomes dominated by twin nucleation at high strain rates. These twins are pinned from further growth past nucleation by the Ta nano-dispersions. Testing of thermal and load history effects on the mechanical behavior reveals that when thermal energy is increased beyond 200 °C, an upturn in flow stress is present at strain rates below 104 s-1. However, in this study, this simple assumption, established 50-years ago, is shown to break-down when the average grain size and microstructural length-scale is decreased and stabilized below 100nm. This divergent strain-rate behavior is attributed to a unique microstructure that alters slip-processes and their interactions with phonons; thus enabling materials response with a constant flow-stress even at extreme conditions. Hence, the present study provides a pathway for designing and synthesizing a new-level of tough and high-energy absorbing materials.
ContributorsTurnage, Scott Andrew (Author) / Solanki, Kiran N (Thesis advisor) / Rajagopalan, Jagannathan (Committee member) / Peralta, Pedro (Committee member) / Darling, Kristopher A (Committee member) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Encapsulant is a key packaging component of photovoltaic (PV) modules, which protects the solar cell from physical, environmental and electrical damages. Ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) is one of the major encapsulant materials used in the PV industry. This work focuses on indoor accelerated ultraviolet (UV) stress testing and characterization to investigate the EVA discoloration and delamination in PV modules by using various non-destructive characterization techniques, including current-voltage (IV) measurements, UV fluorescence (UVf) and colorimetry measurements. Mini-modules with glass/EVA/cell/EVA/backsheet construction were fabricated in the laboratory with two types of EVA, UV-cut EVA (UVC) and UV-pass EVA (UVP).
The accelerated UV testing was performed in a UV chamber equipped with UV lights at an ambient temperature of 50°C, little or no humidity and total UV dosage of 400 kWh/m2. The mini-modules were maintained at three different temperatures through UV light heating by placing different thickness of thermal insulation sheets over the backsheet. Also, prior to thermal insulation sheet placement, the backsheet and laminate edges were fully covered with aluminum tape to prevent oxygen diffusion into the module and hence the photobleaching reaction.
The characterization results showed that mini-modules with UV-cut EVA suffered from discoloration while the modules with UV-pass EVA suffered from delamination. UVf imaging technique has the capability to identify the discoloration region in the UVC modules in the very early stage when the discoloration is not visible to the naked eyes, whereas Isc measurement is unable to measure the performance loss until the color becomes visibly darker. YI also provides the direct evidence of yellowing in the encapsulant. As expected, the extent of degradation due to discoloration increases with the increase in module temperature. The Isc loss is dictated by both the regions – discolored area at the center and non-discolored area at the cell edges, whereas the YI is only determined at the discolored region due to low probe area. This led to the limited correlation between Isc and YI in UVC modules.
In case of UVP modules, UV radiation has caused an adverse impact on the interfacial adhesion between the EVA and solar cell, which was detected from UVf images and severe Isc loss. No change in YI confirms that the reason for Isc loss is not due to yellowing but the delamination.
Further, the activation energy of encapsulant discoloration was estimated by using Arrhenius model on two types of data, %Isc drop and ΔYI. The Ea determined from the change in YI data for the EVA encapsulant discoloration reaction without the influence of oxygen and humidity is 0.61 eV. Based on the activation energy determined in this work and hourly weather data of any site, the degradation rate for the encaspulant browning mode can be estimated.
The accelerated UV testing was performed in a UV chamber equipped with UV lights at an ambient temperature of 50°C, little or no humidity and total UV dosage of 400 kWh/m2. The mini-modules were maintained at three different temperatures through UV light heating by placing different thickness of thermal insulation sheets over the backsheet. Also, prior to thermal insulation sheet placement, the backsheet and laminate edges were fully covered with aluminum tape to prevent oxygen diffusion into the module and hence the photobleaching reaction.
The characterization results showed that mini-modules with UV-cut EVA suffered from discoloration while the modules with UV-pass EVA suffered from delamination. UVf imaging technique has the capability to identify the discoloration region in the UVC modules in the very early stage when the discoloration is not visible to the naked eyes, whereas Isc measurement is unable to measure the performance loss until the color becomes visibly darker. YI also provides the direct evidence of yellowing in the encapsulant. As expected, the extent of degradation due to discoloration increases with the increase in module temperature. The Isc loss is dictated by both the regions – discolored area at the center and non-discolored area at the cell edges, whereas the YI is only determined at the discolored region due to low probe area. This led to the limited correlation between Isc and YI in UVC modules.
In case of UVP modules, UV radiation has caused an adverse impact on the interfacial adhesion between the EVA and solar cell, which was detected from UVf images and severe Isc loss. No change in YI confirms that the reason for Isc loss is not due to yellowing but the delamination.
Further, the activation energy of encapsulant discoloration was estimated by using Arrhenius model on two types of data, %Isc drop and ΔYI. The Ea determined from the change in YI data for the EVA encapsulant discoloration reaction without the influence of oxygen and humidity is 0.61 eV. Based on the activation energy determined in this work and hourly weather data of any site, the degradation rate for the encaspulant browning mode can be estimated.
ContributorsDolia, Kshitiz (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Green, Matthew (Thesis advisor) / Srinivasan, Devarajan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This paper describes an effort to bring wing structural stiffness and aeroelastic considerations early in the conceptual design process with an automated tool. Stiffness and aeroelasticity can be well represented with a stochastic model during conceptual design because of the high level of uncertainty and variability in wing non-structural mass such as fuel loading and control surfaces. To accomplish this, an improvement is made to existing design tools utilizing rule based automated design to generate wing torque box geometry from a specific wing outer mold-line. Simple analysis on deflection and inferred stiffness shows how early conceptual design choices can strongly impact the stiffness of the structure. The impacts of design choices and how the buckling constraints drive structural weight in particular examples are discussed. The model is then carried further to include a finite element model (FEM) to analyze resulting mode shapes and frequencies for use in aeroelastic analysis. The natural frequencies of several selected wing torque boxes across a range of loading cases are compared.
ContributorsMiskin, Daniel L (Author) / Takahashi, Timothy T (Thesis advisor) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Murthy, Raghavendra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Robotic swarms can potentially perform complicated tasks such as exploration and mapping at large space and time scales in a parallel and robust fashion. This thesis presents strategies for mapping environmental features of interest – specifically obstacles, collision-free paths, generating a metric map and estimating scalar density fields– in an unknown domain using data obtained by a swarm of resource-constrained robots. First, an approach was developed for mapping a single obstacle using a swarm of point-mass robots with both directed and random motion. The swarm population dynamics are modeled by a set of advection-diffusion-reaction partial differential equations (PDEs) in which a spatially-dependent indicator function marks the presence or absence of the obstacle in the domain. The indicator function is estimated by solving an optimization problem with PDEs as constraints. Second, a methodology for constructing a topological map of an unknown environment was proposed, which indicates collision-free paths for navigation, from data collected by a swarm of finite-sized robots. As an initial step, the number of topological features in the domain was quantified by applying tools from algebraic topology, to a probability function over the explored region that indicates the presence of obstacles. A topological map of the domain is then generated using a graph-based wave propagation algorithm. This approach is further extended, enabling the technique to construct a metric map of an unknown domain with obstacles using uncertain position data collected by a swarm of resource-constrained robots, filtered using intensity measurements of an external signal. Next, a distributed method was developed to construct the occupancy grid map of an unknown environment using a swarm of inexpensive robots or mobile sensors with limited communication. In addition to this, an exploration strategy which combines information theoretic ideas with Levy walks was also proposed. Finally, the problem of reconstructing a two-dimensional scalar field using observations from a subset of a sensor network in which each node communicates its local measurements to its neighboring nodes was addressed. This problem reduces to estimating the initial condition of a large interconnected system with first-order linear dynamics, which can be solved as an optimization problem.
ContributorsRamachandran, Ragesh Kumar (Author) / Berman, Spring M (Thesis advisor) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Artemiadis, Panagiotis (Committee member) / Marvi, Hamid (Committee member) / Robinson, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018