Effect of Seawater on Properties of HDPE Material Used for Floating Solar Applications

Solar Energy is one of the most renewable and ready sources of energy available in plenty and free on planet earth.Ground mounted solar PV system is used worldwide for installing the largesolar system. Due to the constraint of availability of space for ground-mounted solar system, some countries are utilising water bodies of sea & lakes etc. to install solar PV system. Due to low weight and excellent mechanical & chemical properties, structure made of plastic is used to install solar panel above it. It was found that High-Density Poly Ethylene (HDPE) plasticis widely used for making a structure to install a solar system. In order toanalyze the effect of sea water on properties of HDPE material, its mechanical properties havebeen evaluatedat different intervals till 2160 hours. The variation in the mechanical properties of HDPE material, like tensile strength, elongation at break, flexural strength, flexural modulus, impact resistance, hardness& water absorptionwere evaluated. It was observed that before & after 2160 hours of immersion in sea water, the tensile strength was increased from 24.62 MPa to 25.13MPa, % elongation at break was reduced from 75.81% to 52.81%. The flexural strength is initially increasedand after 768 hours, it is almost constant, however the flexural modulus is decreased. There is negligible change in properties of impact strength, hardness, melt flow rate, density after immersing the sample in sea water. It is established that the mechanical properties of HDPE material is not much affected, and hence it is suitable for making floats of structure, where solar panels are mounted.