Experimental investigation on thermal and toxic gas hazards of typical photovoltaic modules in fire

¹ State Key Laboratory of Fir Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, China
² School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, Sichuan, China

^* Corresponding author: yanglz@ustc.edu.cn

Abstract

Considering that distributed photovoltaic systems are increasingly used in commercial buildings and residential areas, the potential safety hazards caused by building fires or photovoltaic system fires are very prominent. Photovoltaic fires have different characteristics from ordinary fires and are more difficult to extinguish immediately. The photovoltaic system itself will become an additional heat load in a fire, and the safety impact of the toxic gas released by it in densely populated areas is also very important.Based on the fire calorimetry method, this paper conducts an experimental study on the thermal hazards and toxicity hazards of typical photovoltaic panels under fire. Under different external heat radiation, several important combustion characteristic parameters of customized photovoltaic samples were investigated, such as, heat release rate, mass loss rate, total heat of combustion, etc. The instantaneous concentration of several key toxic gases was tested, and the risk was quantitatively analyzed through the FED value recommended in ISO13344:2015.