Wind-driven Rain Exposure and Assessment of Building Integrated Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract

This thesis is written as the final semester project of the five-year Master of Science program of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Bygg- og Miljøteknikk) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) during the spring term of 2016. The work of the thesis is carried out as part of the research project Building integrated photovoltaics for Norway (BIPV Norway), in which NTNU is participant. The thesis is geared towards Work Package 2 of the project, titled Technical integration of photovoltaics in buildings , and its activities 2.1 Development of robust components and solutions and 2.2 Accelerated ageing and durability testing in Nordic climate exposure . The findings will also be presented to the companies that provided us with BIPV systems to test. The main body of the work consists of large-scale exposure tests of BIPV systems. Its main objective is to use the test results to find advantages and disadvantages of various mounting systems, as well as obtaining knowledge about the technical requirements and challenges of BIPV in roofs and façades in a Nordic climate. The results are to be presented in a scientific article. The finalized product is written in the style of an article, but appears to be too voluminous to be suitable for publication in its current state. It was proposed to split it into two articles, but for time constraint reasons it was decided to keep it as one long article, which will later be revised by the BIPV Norway team before it can be submitted for publication in an international scientific journal like e.g. Energy and Buildings, Solar Energy or Construction and Building Materials.