Wind loads on a solar array

Aerodynamic pressures and forces were measured on a model of a solar panel containing six slender, parallel modules. Of particular importance to system design is the aerodynamically induced torque. The peak system torque was generally observed to occur at approach wind angles near the diagonals of the panel (45degrees, 135degrees, 225degrees and 315degrees) although large loads also occurred at 270degrees, where wind is in the plane of the panel, perpendicular to the individual modules. In this case, there was strong vortex shedding from the in-line modules, due to the observation that the module spacing was near the critical value for wake buffeting. The largest loads, however, occurred at a wind angle where there was limited vortex shedding (330degrees). In this case, the bulk of the fluctuating torque came from turbulent velocity fluctuations, which acted in a quasi-steady sense, in the oncoming flow. A simple, quasi-steady, model for determining the peak system torque coefficient was developed.