An experimental and numerical study of wind effects on a ground-mounted solar panel at different panel tilt angles and wind directions

Abstract

The wind effects on a ground-mounted solar panel under the influence of the panel tilt angles and wind directions were investigated; both experimentally and numerically. The ground-mounted solar panel was used with tilt angles of 25° and 45° for a Reynolds number of 6.4 ​× ​104. Wind directions were varied from 0° to 180° at 30° intervals. A constant-temperature hot wire anemometer and a pressure scanner system were used to measure velocity and turbulence intensities and static pressure, respectively, in the wind tunnel. Numerical analyses were carried out via computational fluid dynamics methodology using the realizable k-ε turbulence model. The results showed that the flow structure had been significantly affected by the wind directions and panel tilt angles. The higher panel tilt angle caused stronger vortex shedding fluctuations, and higher velocity zones shedding frequencies. As with the flow structure, the design-relevant wind loads on the solar panel were also shown to be dependent on the wind direction and panel angle. The net pressure coefficients of the solar panel increased with the higher panel tilt angle. The critical wind directions were obtained as 300 and 1500 in terms of overturning moments, while 1800 and 00 wind directions were critical in terms of uplift and drag, respectively. The numerical results of the wind loads showed a good agreement with the experimental results.