Wind loads on ground-mounted solar panels: A multi-scale computational and experimental study

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

12-1-2013

Abstract

Most boundary layer wind tunnels (BLWT) were built for testing models of large civil engineering structures that have geometric scales ranging from 1:500 to 1:100. However, producing typical aerodynamic models of photo-voltaic (PV) Solar panels at such scales makes the modules too small. Such small test models raises technical problems, especially those related to pressure resolution, interference effects from measuring instruments and falls in uncertain flow regimes close to the tunnel's floor. To alleviate these problems, wind tunnel testing protocols that account for different time and geometric scales will be necessary to permit reasonable assessment of wind loads on the solar panels. In the current paper, a geometric scale effect study is carried out on isolated ground-mounted solar panels. The study investigates systematically the scale effects on the aerodynamic data, through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and BLWT testing. The objective is to produce recommendations on the most practical approach for computational and experimental aerodynamic testing of these types of small structures.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

12th Americas Conference on Wind Engineering 2013, ACWE 2013: Wind Effects on Structures, Communities, and Energy Generation

First Page

1014

Last Page

1025

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