SMART ARCHITECTURAL MATERIALS - Integrazione di cellule fotovoltaiche su substrato flessibile in fogli di materiale composito, per la realizzazione di involucri architettonici smart

The research concerns the development of a lightweight and stand-alone component for dynamic envelopes, characterized by a flexible composite material integrated with high-efficiency photovoltaic cells, called SLICE, which is the acronym for Solar Lightweight Intelligent Component for Envelopes. The research work was developed by a multidisciplinary research group lead by the University of Catania (UNICT), with the partnership of the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning (UAUIM) and the Meridionale Impianti Group (MI), a leading local company operating in markets with a high technological content. The definition of the production method of the composite material and the experiments on the integration of a high efficiency photovoltaic system, were carried out. The composite material was made of a thermoplastic matrix and a reinforcement in natural or glass fiber fabric. Its mechanical characterization and the improvement of a secondary production process to generate the tessellation geometry were carried out. The multidisciplinary design process led to the realization of a first prototype of this energy self-sufficient kinetic component called SLICE for testing the movement system and defining the control system. Its management system is based on the Arduino platform. In order to check the effectiveness of the control code developed for the component, the realization of the second prototype, the laboratory simulations, as well as the tests of the preliminary experiments under real environmental conditions were carried out. The rapid prototyping process involved the analysis of the efficiency of the changing system to evaluate the use of the system as an element of BIPV, allowing to exploit the surplus of energy produced to power the technological components of the environment served by the component itself. A workflow in a parametric environment has been defined for the implementation of the component on existing buildings, investigating different geometric configuration on virtual models.