Wind Load Effects and Gust Loading Factor for Cable-Suspended Photovoltaic Structures

The cable-suspended PV system has gained increasing popularity due to its large span and good site adaptability. However, this structure is quite sensitive to wind actions, and wind-induced module damage and structure failure have been frequently reported. Therefore, in this study, we carried out wind tunnel tests to study wind load effects on PV arrays with different lengths and widths. Considering the wind sheltering effects of upstream modules, reduction factors for the wind load were proposed in different array zones. Numerical simulations of wind-induced vibration and equivalent static analysis were conducted to yield gust loading factors for the PV array. This study showed that the maximum wind suction and pressure for the middle zone occurred at 0° and 180°, respectively, while those for the outermost zone appeared under oblique flows (e.g., 30° and 150°). For the PV modules beyond the windward fourth row, the reduction factors of the wind loads were 0.4 (maximum suction) and 0.2 (maximum pressure) for the middle zone and 0.5 (maximum suction) and 0.75 (maximum pressure) for the outermost zone. The gust loading factors for the typical wind directions of 0° and 180° varied from 2.2 to 2.7 for the middle zone and from 1.3 to 1.5 for the outermost zone.