Evaluation of wind load effects on solar panel support frame: A numerical study

Ground-mounted solar systems utilize huge agricultural land because of their high demand. The application/installation of Solar Panels on high rooftop structures can help save agricultural land. However, rooftop structures are vulnerable to high wind-loading conditions. There is no clear guidance available in the literature for finding additional stresses, which are produced by high roof-mounted solar panels due to strong wind loading. This simulation study comprises computational fluid variant (CFX) testing of solar panels and structural analysis of high rooftop structures at different wind velocities of ±7.53, ±15, ±25, ±35, and ±45 m/s. In this simulation study factors of safety (FoS) and displacement against these velocities for all elements of the structure are computed and presented. The truss is the most vulnerable even at the minimum wind load. The FoS for the truss is 0.41 and the displacement is 51.6 mm at a velocity of 7.53 m/s. The mounting structure fails at the velocity of -15 m/s as the resulting FoS and displacement are 0.72 and 58.26 mm, respectively. Based on the analysis, it has been determined that the Channel and Column structures can withstand speeds of up to ±25 m/s without exceeding the threshold limit. The Factor of Safety (FoS) for the Channel and Column at +25 m/s are 15 and 14.27, respectively, while the corresponding deformations are 0.43 mm and 4.59 mm. At -25 m/s, the FoS for the Channel and Column are 1.26 and 4.8, respectively. Overall, these results indicate that the Channel and Column structures have a good margin of safety and can withstand typical wind loads without failure. Meanwhile, deformations are 13.02 mm and 4.59 mm, respectively. Further, results give that the new proposed design of the mounting structure and truss can withstand up to the threshold velocity level of 25 m/s. Hence, investing in an existing structure can save useful agricultural land.