Experimental Investigation of Wind Loads on Roof-Mounted Solar Arrays

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.