Peak negative pressure coefficients on low-tilted solar arrays mounted on flat roofs: The effects of building size and model scale

Abstract eng:
Pressure coefficients corresponding to peak uplift on low-tilted solar panels mounted on flat-roofed buildings were determined based on boundary layer wind tunnel testing. The solar panels were arranged in arrays of 8 panels by 12 rows. A total of 9 array positions on a total of 11 buildings of different sizes with sharp roof edges were studied. The testing was conducted on a geometrical scale of 1:100 with parts of the testing being repeated at a larger scale of 1:50. Significant effects of array location on the roof, row and panel position within the array, tributary area and building size on peak negative pressure coefficients were found. A refined method for plotting pressure coefficients over normalized tributary area is proposed. In addition, it is shown that at a model scale of 1:50 peak negative pressure coefficients are higher for all array positions and building sizes. This finding may partly be associated with the effects of additional high-frequency turbulence which is not present at the smaller 1:100 scale. INTRODUCTION Wind loads on solar panel arrays mounted on flat or sloped roofs have been the subject of many experimental studies. Full-scale studies are rare with some notable exceptions (Geurts and Steenbergen, 2009 [1]; Moravej et al., 2015 [2]). The most common tool for evaluation of wind loads on solar panels is the atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnel. Some of the recent wind tunnel research focused on wind loads and on pressure equalization for roof-parallel panels (Wood et al., 2001 [3]; Stenabaugh et al., 2011 [4]; Erwin et al., 2011 [5]; Ginger et al., 2011 [6]; Geurts and Blackmore, 2013 [8]; Oh and Kopp, 2014a [9]; Oh and Kopp, 2014b [10]; Oh and Kopp, 2015 [11]; Stenabaugh et al., 2015 [12]; Kray, 2015 [13]; Stenabaugh and Kopp, 2015 [14]). However, most of the research focused on wind loads on tilted solar panels mounted on flat roofs such as the pioneering studies of Radu et al. (1986) [15] and Radu and Axinte (1989) [16] in the late eighties. More recent research has been concerned about quantifying parameters relevant to the wind loading of such structures. Wind tunnel results by Saha et al. (2011) [17] pointed out the effects of panel location and tilt angle on wind force coefficients. Kopp et al. (2012) [18] identified aerodynamic mechanisms relevant to the maximum wind loading on tilted, roof-mounted solar arrays. In particular, array generated turbulence, pressure equalization, the presence of the building and the setback of the array

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