20.500.12556/DiRROS-25167 Experimental and numerical investigation of the fire behavior of double-glass building integrated photovoltaic modules with PVB interlayers Amid rising global energy demands and environmental concerns, energy-efficient, or ‘green’, buildings are becoming mandatory in building regulations worldwide. In that context, building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), which merge photovoltaic (PV) modules with architectural design, are gaining widespread adoption. To assess fire safety aspects of BIPV, the fire performance of double-glass PV modules with polyvinyl butyral (PVB) encapsulation in BIPV façade systems was studied experimentally and numerically. More specifically, fire experiments were conducted under varying radiative heat fluxes to evaluate thermal degradation, fire behavior, and toxic gas emissions. Key parameters, including ignition time, heat release rate per unit area (HRRPUA), mass loss rate (MLR), and gas composition, were analyzed. The results confirm that a higher external heat flux markedly reduces ignition time while increasing HRRPUA and MLR for BIPV, which is in line with results for other materials. The primary toxic gases emitted during combustion were CO, CO2, H2, and SO2, with CO and CO2 emissions rising significantly at elevated heat fluxes. To complement the experimental results, a numerical model coupling transient heat conduction and pyrolysis kinetics was developed to predict the pre-ignition thermal response of the multilayer structure. The model employed layer discretization and temperature-dependent boundaries, demonstrating close agreement with experimental data. Therefore, it enabled systematic analyses of the sensitivity of PV module material flammability to incident radiative heat fluxes, material properties, and geometric configurations. This combined experimental and numerical approach offers a predictive framework for assessing fire risks and optimizing the fire safety design of BIPV systems. fire behavior combustion stages PV modules heat conduction pyrolysis model module toxicity fire safety vedenje ognja stopnje gorenja PV moduli model pirolize toplotnega prevajanja toksicnost modulov požarna varnost true false true Elsevier Science Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik © 2025 The Authors Neznano 2026-01-13 08:50:44 2026-01-13 09:14:53 2026-02-10 07:16:14 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 str. 1-39 [article no.] 139726 Vol. 342 Jan. 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 2025-12-20 621.3 1873-6785 10.1016/j.energy.2025.139726 262707459 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2025.139726 0 91b6e5b7-f054-11f0-94a7-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=37929 RAZ_Yu_Wanning_2025.pdf RAZ_Yu_Wanning_2025.pdf 1 87BCF0ABE9781DAA74C5BCA2EFA5EAF7 840508ade4e57fc1762174cef16fad8ebc5120c2e9689764fbd4afb4723ae204 dc54ebe0-f057-11f0-94a7-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=37936 Zavod za gradbeništvo Slovenije 0 0 0