Subject index

Abstract

A comprehensive numerical study has been carried out for the wind effects on a standalone ground-mounted solar photo voltaic (PV) panel in various wind directions. PV panels are vulnerable to wind loading and extensive damages have been reported the world over, due to high wind. No wind-related design guidelines and codal provision are available, for the design of PV panels. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques using Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS), has been used to predict the drag and lift coefficients on the inclined PV panel subjected to the wind incident angle of 0° to 90° for the turbulent wind flow.The drag and lift, in x and y directions respectively, are found to be maximum when the wind is flowing normally to the PV panel, whereas the lift in the z-direction is maximum when the wind incident angle is 60°. The maximum positive and negative wind pressure coefficient on the windward side of the PV panel has been found as 1.120 and -0.716 at the wind incident angle of 60° and 90° respectively. Whereas, the maximum positive and negative wind pressure coefficient on the leeward side of the PV panel has been found as 0.020 and -4.914 at the wind incident angle of 0° and 45° respectively. The results can be concluded that the PV panel is subjected to significant lift and drag force under wind loading, which may cause damage to the PV panel if it is not designed properly.