Simulating the thermo-mechanical failure of glass-glass buildingintegrated photovoltaics in fire

Modelling the complex phenomena that take place in the multifunctional response of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is a rather challenging task. Moreover, several operational conditions can take place and represent additional influencing parameters for material properties and performances. As such, specific performance indicators are required to assess the mechanical capacity, resisting mechanisms and failure occurrence of these composite systems, both under ordinary or extreme design actions. Part of the running 3FiRES research activity deals on the development and validation of efficient numerical models that could be used – for a general scenario – to track and capture the thermo-mechanical performance and failure of BIPVs in fire. This contribution summarizes some important aspects that should be taken into account for a robust analysis. The target, as shown, is a commercial glass-glass BIPV system subjected to the simultaneous action of thermal (i.e., time-temperature conventional fire) and mechanical loads.