Lifetime and Degradation Science

Environmentally exposed technologies – whether to the sun, the factory floor, or inside the human body – are subject to a wide range of stressors.  While usually performance tested and designed to mitigate these stressors, such technologies naturally degrade over a lifetime of usage.

Lifetime and Degradation Science (L&DS) moves beyond basic qualification testing to study the way technologies degrade over their lives.  The result is to enable the design and manufacture of those more reliable and longer lasting.   In particular, this system approach:

• Studies stresses and responses
• Enables quantitative degradation rate modeling
• Connects research on materials, components, and systems
• Serves as the scientific underpinning for industrial reliability and qualification standards
• Increases lifetime and lowers levelized cost of energy (LCOE)

CWRU’s Solar Durability and Lifetime Extension (SDLE) Center advances L&DS initiatives both within the University and with a host of global industrial partners.