Impact of wind on strength and deformation of solar photovoltaic modules

Maritime transport is one of the most important modes of transportation and plays an important role in facilitating world trade. In recent years, the maritime transport industry has been required to comply with “low carbon” policies. To meet the “low carbon shipping” policies, solar energy as a source of renewable energy has attracted more attention in the shipping industry. Photovoltaic solar panels, which to generate ships’ electricity, are always vulnerable to wind damage because they are mounted on deck. At present, they do not provide comprehensive guidelines for reducing the impact of wind on photovoltaic structures. The present study contributes to the evaluation of the deformation and robustness of photovoltaic module under ocean wind load according to the standard of IEC 61215 using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The effect of wind on photovoltaic panels is analyzed for three speeds of 32 m per second (m/s), 42 m/s, and 50 m/s.