Numerical simulation of wind loading on ground-mounted solar panels at different flow configurations

Shademan, Mehrdad; Balachandar, Ram; HanganH.,

doi:10.1139/cjce-2013-0537

Cited by 75 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…For 0° and 45° wind angle attack, the panel is totally under downwards pressure, while for 135° and 180° the panel is totally under uplift pressure. Graphics for 0° and 180° wind direction show symmetric pressure distribution about mid axis which correspond with the wind direction, these results are consistent with the studies developed by Abiola-Ogedengbe et al (2015) and (Shademan et al 2014). Net pressure coefficients distributions for 0° wind direction show the highest values at the lowest part of the PV panel and the values decrease towards the upper edge.…”

Section: Pressure Coefficientssupporting

confidence: 90%

“…The numerical simulation has been an alternative to obtain pressure coefficients on stand-alone ground mounted PV panel (Bitsuamlak et al 2010, Shademan et al 2014. Even when this technique is not used in the present work, the results of these studies (Bitsuamlak et al 2010, Shademan et al 2014 are interesting in order to deepen in the behavior of pressure distribution of PV panel. Bitsuamlak et al (2010) investigated the wind effects of stand-alone ground mounted PV panel with 40° of inclination for three incident angles of attack (0°, 30° and 180°).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…The simulations were carried out for a range from 0° to 180° wind direction with 30° intervals. Their results showed that the maximum aerodynamic forces for standalone panel were at wind direction of 0° and 180°.The authors (Shademan et al 2014) also reported that introducing the gap between the sub-panels changes significantly the flow structure in the wake region. They pointed out that when the ground clearance is increased, it results in a lager mean wind loading on the structure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The authors who worked on this investigation (Bitsuamlak et al 2010) reported that the highest values of overall wind loads correspond to 180° wind angle of attack. Shademan et al (2014) performed CFD simulations to predict the wind loads on stand-alone and array PV panels. It was studied the effects of lateral gap spacing between sub-panels and the ground clearance on the wind loading of the stand-alone panel, which presents 45° of inclination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experimentos en túnel de viento sobre paneles fotovoltaicos montados en el suelo

López¹,

Parnás²,

Cataldo³

2019

Rev. ing. constr.

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Section: Pressure Coefficientssupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Experimentos en túnel de viento sobre paneles fotovoltaicos montados en el suelo

López¹,

Parnás²,

Cataldo³

2019

Rev. ing. constr.

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“…The wind loads on PV modules can be estimated by numerical simulations based on Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) [2,12,13], LES [5,14,15] and Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) [16][17][18][19][20], or by experiments [8,[21][22][23]. PV modules are often represented by thin flat plates, with a certain value of aspect ratio (AR) defined as the ratio of the plate height to width.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of Turbulence Models in Simulating Wind Loads on Photovoltaics Modules

et al. 2019

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The performance of five conventional turbulence models, commonly used in the wind industry, are examined in predicting the complex wake of an infinite span thin normal flat plate with large pressure gradients at Reynolds number of 1200. This body represents a large array of Photovoltaics modules, where two edges of the plate dominate the flow. This study provided a benchmark for capabilities of conventional turbulence models that are commonly used for wind forecasting in the wind energy industry. The results obtained from Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) k - ε , Reynolds Normalization Group (RNG) k - ε , RANS k - ω Shear Stress Transport (SST) and Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) were compared with existing Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS). The mean flow features and unsteady wake characteristics were used as testing criteria amongst these models. All turbulence models over-predicted the mean recirculation length and under-predicted the mean drag coefficient. The major differences between numerical results in predicting the mean recirculation length, mean drag and velocity gradients, leading to deficits in turbulence kinetic energy production and diffusion, hint at major difficulties in modeling velocity gradients and thus turbulence energy transport terms, by traditional turbulence models. Unsteadiness of flow physics and nature of eddy viscosity approximations are potential reasons. This hints at the deficiencies of these models to predict complex flows with large pressure gradients, which are commonly observed in wind and solar farms. The under-prediction of wind loads on PV modules and over-estimation of the recirculation length behind them significantly affects the efficiency and operational feasibility of solar energy systems.

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Effect of inhomogeneous loads on the mechanics of PV modules

Romer,

Pethani,

Beinert

2023

Progress in Photovoltaics

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In contrast to homogeneous mechanical load according to IEC 61215, photovoltaic modules in the field are mainly exposed to inhomogeneous loads like snow or wind. This paper deals with such inhomogeneous loads using computational fluid dynamics and finite element method simulations. Temperatures different to room temperature and the choice of encapsulates have significant influences on the thermomechanics of a photovoltaic module in case of snow load. Polyolefin is the encapsulant with the lowest storage modulus and has the lowest overall stress in solar cells and glass down to −30°C. Furthermore, with colder temperatures, the first principal stress decreases in solar cells but increases in the glass. For wind loads, the impact of module orientation, wind direction, module inclination angle, and wind speed is analyzed. A crosswind scenario is found to be most critical. Additionally, as a rule of thumb, higher module inclination angles result in higher stresses. Finally, general thermomechanical rules are extracted allowing for a deeper understanding of the underlying effects and therefore help to build more robust modules in the future.

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Numerical simulation of wind loading on ground-mounted solar panels at different flow configurations

Cited by 75 publications

References 10 publications

Experimentos en túnel de viento sobre paneles fotovoltaicos montados en el suelo

Experimentos en túnel de viento sobre paneles fotovoltaicos montados en el suelo

Performance of Turbulence Models in Simulating Wind Loads on Photovoltaics Modules

Effect of inhomogeneous loads on the mechanics of PV modules

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