Paggi, MarcoReinoso Cuevas, José Antonio2025-06-092025-06-092024-03-22Liu, Z. (2024). Multi-field and multi-scale Modeling of Fracture for renewable energy Applications. (Tesis Doctoral Inédita). Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla.https://hdl.handle.net/11441/174106This thesis is mainly focused on the computational modeling of solar cell cracking, multiphyics phenomena, and recycling of photovoltaic (PV) modules through the finite element method. Specifically, it consists of three parts. In the first part, a comprehensive hygro-thermo-mechanical computational framework in the 3D setting is proposed to model the coupled degradation phenomena in the PV modules for the durability analysis, and it is applied to the simulation of three international standard tests of PV modules, namely the damp heat test, the humidity freeze test, and the thermal cycling test. The second part is focused on the crack modeling of very thin and brittle silicon solar cells in the PV modules, and a reliable computational framework integrating solid shell element formulation with phase field fracture modeling is developed using the efficient quasi-Newton solution scheme and global local approach. The excellent performance is showcased through the simulation of different boundary value problems, and then applied to predict the crack growth of silicon solar cells when the PV modules are subjected to different external loadings. The third part addresses the efficient recycling of PV modules through the numerical modeling method by the development of 3D interface finite element with humidity-dose enhanced cohesive zone model for the peeling simulation to separate different layers, and diffusion-swelling large deformation continuum theory for the nondestructive recovery of silicon cells in the PV recycling using the solvent method. With these tools at hand, it is possible to design suitable virtual testing procedures for PV durability and recyclability analysis.application/pdf244 p.engAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesisinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess