Area-averaged Characteristics of Wind Loads on Roof-mounted Solar Arrays

With the increasing use of solar photovoltaics, wind-induced loads on rooftop solar arrays have become a problem. A series of wind tunnel experiments have been performed to evaluate wind loads on solar panels on flat roofs, mainly focusing on their area-averaged characteristics such as mean and negative peak force coefficients, and peak factors. Solar array models were fabricated with pressure taps installed as densely as possible to identify the area-averaged characteristics. Design parameters of solar arrays including panel position, tilt angle and distance between arrays have been considered. Although values for unfavorable mean and peak differ for different tilt angles, the variation tendencies and peak factors are similar. The results were also compared to Japanese Standard (JIS C 8955) which correctly estimates negative mean module force coefficients but not peak values.