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Defects Detection in Bi-Facial Photovoltaic Modules PV Using Pulsed

Thermography

Conference Paper · April 2018

DOI: 10.1109/REPSGIE.2018.8488833

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Defects Detection In Bi-facial Photovoltaic Modules
PV Using Pulsed Thermography
Asseya.El-amiri, Abderrahim.Saifi, Abdellatif.
Obbadi, Youssef.Errami, Smail.Sahnoun,*
Laboratory of Electronics, Instrumentation and
energetic, Faculty of Sciences, B.P 24000
El-Jadida, Morocco
* Corresponding author:ssahnoun@gmail.com
Abstract—The importance of photovoltaic modules PV as
inexhaustible energy systems is a well-known necessity. Their
reliability and durability are the keys of the overall performance
and the system warranty. To ensure the reliability of these
systems, reliable predictive and preventive maintenance
techniques are required. The infrared pulsed thermography (PT)
could be a quick and simple diagnostic tool to detect defects that
occur during the manufacture or during the operation of these
energy systems, these defects can cause significant losses in the
output performance. In this paper, using the pulsed infrared
thermography and a 3D finite element computation software
COMSOL Multiphysics, we have simulated a mono-crystalline
bi-facial photovoltaic panel with different types of defects
especially defects of delamination, hot spots, cracked cell, glass
and cracked busbars. The thermograms and the curves obtained
were analyzed to identify the possible differences between the
temperature responses of the studied cases, in order to know the
causes of the power output reduction. The obtained results were
compared with other related works.
Keywords—Mono-crystalline bi-facial photovoltaic panel;
cracks; Delamination; Hot spot; cracked busbars; Pulsed
thermography; the finite elements.
I. INTRODUCTION
For several years solar energy has been growing as a future
source of clean, renewable and inexhaustible energy, this
energy makes it possible to manufacture electricity thanks to
the sunlight captured by solar panels [1], the environmental
impact of this energy remains minimal thanks to the non-
release of CO2, and to the recyclable materials that make up
the solar panels, which does not influence global warming.
The most common type of solar energy system is photovoltaic
(PV), these photovoltaic systems produce energy in proportion
to the intensity of sunlight reaching the surface of the solar
network. Photovoltaic solar panels group photovoltaic cells
interconnected in series to control the output voltage, or in
parallel to control the output current, the series connection has
a disadvantage, because the performance of the PV panel are
reduced if one of the cells is damaged, also the degradation of
the performances and the lifetime of the photovoltaic modules
depend on the deferent failures occurring during manufacture
or operation, such as encapsulation failures, hot spots,
corrosion, cracks and dust. In order to improve the efficiency
and maximize the energy production during the lifetime of the
Ahmed.Elhassnaoui
Industrial Engineering Laboratory, Faculty of Science and
Technology, BP: 523
Beni mellal, Morocco
PV system, it is very important to detect defects and find the
causes of the loss of production as soon as possible without
wasting too much time and effort, and without stopping the
system, to minimize harmful impacts and save energy and
money [2]. Infrared thermography is a non-destructive test
method, which allows a global and a non-contact measurement
of the temperature at the surface of the inspected object, by
measuring the intensity of the radiation in the infrared region
of the electromagnetic spectrum, this technique has been
proved to be a useful and effective tool for failure analysis
modes in the electrical industries, and has found its use also in
the energy sector, especially photovoltaic [3]. In this paper, we
investigated defects in mono-crystalline bi-facial photovoltaic
(PV) panels, this type of photovoltaic module has the
advantage of being more efficient than other types of panels in
terms of power efficiency, given the energy recovered by the
rear face and the design structure, but in terms of cost these
modules remain more expensive than others. In this work the
motivation is to use the pulsed thermorgaphy technique as a
fast and precise tool that allows detection of deferent types of
defects, wherever their size and their position. In this study
and for the first time used, we applied this technique on a
mono-crystalline bifacial PV module. The objective was to
obtain good thermograms using specific irradiation and
measuring time which can lead to a high investigation of this
type of PV modules. In this purpose we simulated by the finite
element method 3D, a mono-crystalline bi-facial PV panel
with different types of defects (delamination defects, hot
spots, cracked cell, glass and busbars). The results obtained
can be useful, to know what caused the loss of production and
find a solution as soon as possible, or to improve the
manufacturing process of the photovoltaic panels.
II. METHODOLOGY
The pulsed thermography method used in this study, is a
non-contact method based on measuring the surface
temperature of the inspected sample, after its exposure to a
heat flux and the perturbation due to hidden defects. The heat
flux is in the form of a thermal pulse of very short duration
(Fig.1).

Fig.1. Principle of pulsed thermography
According to the technique used and taking into account the
heat transfer mechanism, the expression of this phoneme can
be described with the following formula [4]:
  T    T    T  T
x   y  z   Ce
x  x  y  y  z  z 
(1)
t
In (1), T represents the absolute temperature, ρ is the density,
Ce is the specific heat and t represents the time. For the
temperature variation in the equation bellow, the dependence
is not only with respect to the studied body temperature but
also depends on the external conditions, and the important
term is that of the variation of the temperature with respect to
the time.
III. SIMULATED MODEL
Researchers have given great attention to bi-facial
photovoltaic solar modules (called also glass-glass or double-
glass), in order to develop a photovoltaic system to produce
more output energy compared to conventional mono-facial
photovoltaic panels, and this thanks to the absorption of solar
radiation that can be made on both sides of the cell, front and
rear. The construction of a bifacial module differs from a
conventional module in that it is equipped with thinner glass
materials of about 2.8mm in both sides for bi-facial modules,
whereas, for conventional mono-facial modules, the glass
typically has a thickness of 3.2mm just in front of the module
[5] (Fig.2).
(a)
In this study, we simulated a structure of a bi-facial
photovoltaic solar panel whose dimensions are the same used
in the industry. The length and the width of the solar panel are
respectively 1.60 m and 1 m, the glass layers have a thickness
of 2.8 mm, the EVA layers have a thickness of 0.5 mm, and
the silicon layer has a thickness of 0.3 mm (Fig.3). For the
materials used and their thermophysical properties, they are
shown in Table 1.
In order to better understand the problems that can lead to
a decrease in output energy production, and in order to
increase the lifetime of bi-facial photovoltaic panels, we
studied the temperature response of photovoltaic panels
infected with different types of defects.
In the first part, we investigated cell, busbars and glass
cracking defects that may occur under the surface of PV
modules during manufacturing, during moving from the plant
to the installation site, or due to some climatic procedures such
as snow loads, strong winds, etc., which can lead to a
disconnection of the cells and consequently to a loss of the
total power generated by the PV modules [6], different types
of cracks under surface with different widths have been
studied, these are presented in Table 2.
In the second part we studied the presence of delamination
between the EVA layer and the cell, which is a major failure
mechanism, usually caused by hot spots that locally heat the
EVA leading to severe delamination. Four different
encapsulation delamination regions were studied, a
delamination around the busbars (Fig.4.a), a delamination in
the center of the cell (Fig.4.b), and two others in the edges of
the cell (Fig.4.c, Fig.4.d)[7].
Fig.3. Structure of the PV module used in the study
TABLE 1. THERMOPHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MATERIALS USED IN THE
STUDY

Thermal
The density The Specific
conductivity
(Kg m-3) heat (J kg-1 K-1)
(Wm-1K-1 )
Glass 1.38 2203 703

Silicium 131 2329 700

(b)
EVA 0.35 951 1400

Copper 385 8700 400

Air 0.0272 1.057 1005

Fig.2. (a) Bi-facial module structure; (b) Standard module structure


TABLE 2. DIMENSIONS OF THE CELL AND GLASS CRACKS
Length Width
(m) (m)
Diagonal crack (+45°) 0.12 0.0005
Diagonal crack (-45°) 0.12 0.001
Parallel crack with busbars 0.03 0.001
Perpendicular crack with
0.05 0.0005
busbars
Axis (A1A2)
Fig.4. Delamination regions: (a) Around the busbars; (b) Centre of the cell;
(c) and (d) Corner of the edge
Among the defects that can influence the energy
production of PV modules, we also find the hot spots, this
phenomenon can be generated during the operation of the PV
system, this type of fault occurs when the cell is totally or
partially shaded, damaged or when the cells are electrically
incompatible. The shaded cell becomes reverse biased and
dissipates the power as heat. To this end and to simulate this
type of defect we have considered that the hot spot is a heat
source that releases a flux of 30 W.m-2.
For all the cases studied, the calculation of the thermal
response is done by software based on the 3D finite elements
method COMSOL Multiphysics. For the inspected
photovoltaic panels PV, the upper side are subjected to an
irradiation of 8000 (W.m-2) during 30s, the lateral faces are
assumed to be thermally insulated, the lower face is
maintained at a constant temperature T=293K, the initial
temperature is considered Ti= 298K. To obtain good results,
good curves and thermograms, we analyzed the thermal
response for the all cases studied at each second, and we found
that the best time to extract relevant data is at t=20 s.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
In this document, the defects of the bi-facial PV panels
which are difficult to detect, are determined and analyzed
using a calculation software based on the finite element 3D.
The aim is to show the effectiveness of pulsed thermography
to detect the presence of different defaults that can influence
the energy production despite of their dimensions and
positions by treating the temperature distribution for each case
Thickness and for all the calculation times, in order to get the exact time
(m) which is relevant and gives an accurate results.
0.0003 In the first part we studied the cracking of cells and glass
which is a problem often encountered in PV modules, for this,
0.0003 we present in Fig.5 the thermograms that illustrate the
presence of subsurface cracks of the glass layer. From the
0.0003 thermograms obtained, we can notice that these cracks are
presented by the hottest zones and they are clearly visible
0.0003 whatever their widths and their rotation angle, contrary to the
cracks present in the cells which are hardly visible (Fig.6), and
this is due to the position of the cracks that are farther away
from the heated surface, the difference between the thermal
response of the diagonal cracks -45° and 45°, is due to their
different widths, from the thermograms obtained it's clear that
the crack with the high width is better visible then the smaller
one.
The cracks defects can also occur in busbars and can lead
to severe damage, such as hot spot and then delamination,
such defects are very difficult or almost impossible to detect
by visual inspection, and this is because of their small sizes
[8], therefore we investigated busbars cracks by the
application of the same heat and the same boundary condition
used previously on a cell with cracked busbars, one of these
cracks is horizontal, and the other one has a rotation angle of
45°. Fig.7 illustrate the thermogram that present the
temperature response, the busbars cracks are surrounded by
red circles, even if they are not that clear, it steel possible to
detect using a very high resolution camera.
To study the influence of crack rotation angle on their
detectability, we extracted the temperature evolution along the
axis (A1A2) (Fig.4), for the three cracking cases studied,
cracking of the glass, of the cell, and the cracking of the
busbars.
Fig.5. Glass cracks thermograms: (a) Diagonal crack (45°); (b) Diagonal
crack (-45°); (c) Parallel crack; (d) Perpendicular crack
 Fig.8. The temperature evolution along the axis (A1A2) of a photovoltaic
Fig.6. Cell cracks thermograms: (a) Diagonal crack (45°); (b) Diagonal module with cracked glass for the four types of cracks studied
crack (-45°); (c) Parallel crack; (d) Perpendicular crack

Fig.7. Thermogram of a bi-facial photovoltaic module cracked busbars Fig.9. The temperature evolution along the axis (A1A2) of a photovoltaic
module with cracked cells for the four types of cracks studied
We have presented in Fig.8 the temperature evolution for
the first case (glass cracking) where we have studied four
types of cracks, two of which have the same dimensions and
different rotation angles, the peaks in the curves represent the
cracked part in the glass, and the difference between the
temperature associated to each peak is due to their dimensions
or their rotation angles. From Fig.8 it is noted that even cracks
with the same dimensions have different peaks, which is due
to their rotation angle. The same study made for the cells
cracks and the busbars cracks, we have presented their
temperature evolution respectively in Fig.9 and Fig.10,
according to these figures, it is remarkable that the cracks
having a rotation angle of 45 ° or -45° are difficult to detect in
comparison with vertical or horizontal cracks.
Fig.10. The temperature evolution of a photovoltaic module with cracked
After having demonstrated the effectiveness of the infrared busbars for the two types of cracks studied
thermography method in the non-destructive control of cracks
the small cracks produced in the glass.
in cells, glass and busbars, we now move to analyze
thermograms obtained after the application of the same To detect a hot spot defect, a thermal analysis should be
method under the same heating conditions on a delaminated performed before this defect damages a cell or any other
photovoltaic module in order to control the presence of element of the module, among the causes of the hot spots they
deferent types of delamination between EVA and cell (Fig.4). are the failures in the interconnection between the cells, that
Fig.11 shows the thermograms obtained, the hottest areas can be caused by cracks in the busbars of the cell [9], In
present the delaminated regions, and we can notice that they Fig.12 we present the thermogram of a bi-facial photovoltaic
are clearly visible which leads to conclude that the panel with hot spot, we note that the warm area which present
delamination defects between the EVA layer and the cell are the defect appear clearly in the thermogram proving the
easily detectable in comparison with the cracks in the cell or effectiveness of pulsed thermography to detect this type of
defect.
Fig.11. Delamination regions: (a) Around the busbars; (b) Centre of the cell;
(c) and (d) Corner of the edge
Fig.12. Thermogram of a bi-facial photovoltaic module with hot spot
A. Compartive study
In order to demonstrate the efficiency and the robustness of
the technique used, a comparison with a method widely used in
the same field which is the electroluminescence (EL) imaging
was made. This method has the principle of the light emitting
diode (LED). It is based on the light emission that occurs when
the current flows through the solar cell, the hidden defects are
considered inhomogeneous and appear as dark areas in
electroluminescence imaging. The results obtained in the case
of the cell cracks, the delamination and the hot spot were
compared to the results found by other researchers who used
the (EL) imaging as a technique to detect such defects (cell
cracks [10], delamination [11] and hot spot [12]) in mono-
crystalline PV modules. These results in addition to the results
obtained using pulsed thermography are presented in Fig.13.
In Fig. 13, we can notice that for the pulsed thermograghy
the defect areas are presented by the hottest zone, and for the
electroluminescence imaging the defect areas are the darkness
zones, it is clear that in the case of the delamination and the hot
spot, the PT technique gives the clearest images compared to
the EL technique, however in the case of the cell cracks both
method give relevant results.
Fig.13. Thermograms and EL image of a mono-crystalline PV module with
different defects
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, an investigation of a mono-crystalline bi-
facial photovoltaic panel is done, in order to detect the presence
of defects that may appear during manufacture or on site during
operation, the visual inspection still insufficient and unreliable.
In this study the investigation of the studied panels is made by
pulsed thermography (PT), the analyzed defects are the defects
of glass and cell cracking, the delamination that can occur
between the EVA layer and the cell, the hot spot and busbars
cracks. In this study we found the heat flux and the exact time
that allows detecting all the defects investigated without the
need to search for new test conditions with each change of
defect. In addition to the test made a comparative study were
done in order to constitute a global idea about the efficiency of
the technique used. According to the results obtained, the
method of pulsed thermography has proved that it is a reliable
and a rapid method for the detection of different types of
defects in mono-crystalline bi-facial photovoltaic panels,
whatever their types or sizes, except small defects which
require material with high resolution.
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