Experimental Investigation of Wind Loads on Roof-Mounted Solar Arrays

Jianfeng Yao, Zhibin Tu, Dong Wang, Guohui Shen and Wenjuan Lou
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Jianfeng Yao: Institute of Civil Engineering Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Hangzhou 310018, China
Zhibin Tu: Institute of Civil Engineering Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Hangzhou 310018, China
Dong Wang: Department of New Energy Development and Construction, China Energy Engineering Group Zhejiang Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd., Hangzhou 310012, China
Guohui Shen: College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Wenjuan Lou: College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-20

Abstract: An experimental study was conducted to investigate the aerodynamic loads on roof-mounted solar arrays. Four different parapet heights of 0 m, 0.9 m, 1.2 m, 1.5 m, and two tilt angles of 5° and 10°, are set to examine their effects on wind pressure coefficients. The statistics (means, standard deviations, skewness, kurtosis, maximum and minimum peaks) of wind pressure coefficients in different wind directions are exhibited and discussed in the current study. The results show that the oblique wind directions are critical for most measured locations, as the extreme of maximum and minimum peak pressure coefficients occur. The parapet can decrease wind loads on solar arrays, as expected. However, as the parapet is within a limited height in practice, it is not quite efficient to decrease wind loads despite the increasing of the parapet height. When the solar arrays are installed on the roof almost horizontally (tilt angle is less than 10°), the statistics of the aerodynamic load change a little with the decreasing of the tilt angle.

Keywords: wind loads; solar arrays; low-rise building; parapet height; tilt angle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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