Wind Forces on Ground-Mounted Photovoltaic Solar Systems: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Abstract: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results are compared with design standards on wind loads for ground-mounted solar panels and arrays to develop recommendations for a uniform design method. A case study solar farm built in two phases (phase 1 and phase 2) is considered under the impact of Hurricane Maria. The two phases include the same size of solar panels but at different elevation heights and tilt angles. The study highlights the impact of design parameters and the implementation of different versions of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) design standard on the overall wind loads that caused the failure. We employed several turbulence closures to simulate wind pressures in CFD–Reynold’s stress model, k–ε model, and large eddy simulation (LES). In addition, the lift, drag, and peak pressures are obtained using LES. The CFD shows that phase 1 experiences higher wind loads when compared to phase 2. Differences in the loads obtained from different versions of the ASCE standard are realized. A theoretical cost-benefit analysis shows that the price of rebuilding the solar farm after Hurricane Maria adds 50% extra cost to the original cost. However, if the original design accounted for the actual wind loads, the total cost would be increased by only 2%.