THE RIGHT WAY TO CHARACTERIZE ADHESION OF POLYMERS IN PV MODULES

It is widely accepted that adherence (which reports to what is measured when performing an adhesion test) of the encapsulant to the main substrates of the module plays a key role in the long term reliability of the PV module [1,2]. Consequently, adherence is commonly measured and used to assess or compare encapsulant compatibility with a given substrate. The most common procedures used in the PV field to characterize adhesion between a polymer film and a substrate are the so called peeling test, lap shear and compressive shear tests. Here we use a compressive shear setup to characterize the adherence of Poly Vinyl Butyral (PVB) and Polyethylene-covinyl acetate (EVA) to glass before and after degradation in damp-heat (DH) conditions (85°C, 85%RH). The adherence metrics that can be derived from a Compressive Shear Test (CST) are presented and discussed. We show that a single metric is not sufficient to characterize adherence and that a set of at least two indicators including the peak shear stress and the viscous dissipation should be used. Using this set it is found that the interface PVB/Glass is more affected by the degradation than the EVA/Glass interface.