An innovative image analysis technique is proposed to process real solar cell pictures, identify grains and grain boundaries in polycrystalline Silicon, and finally generate finite element meshes. Using a modified intrinsic cohesive zone model approach to avoid mesh dependency, nonlinear finite element simulations show how grain boundaries and Silicon bulk properties influence the crack pattern. Numerical results demonstrate a prevalence of transgranular over intergranular cracking for similar interface fracture properties of grains and grain boundaries, in general agreement with the experimental observation.
@article{arxiv.1410.0256,
title = {Image analysis of polycrystalline solar cells and modeling of intergranular and transgranular cracking},
author = {Andrea Infuso and Mauro Corrado and Marco Paggi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1410.0256},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
17 pages, 15 figures, post-print of the article published in the Journal of the European Ceramic Society