Strong typhoon acting on solar panels

Project Support
1

There is a small groups of solar panels on the roof of a building. And here is the link of my project and I have simulation result in “Run 1” (stopped at 3%):

As you can see, strong wind blowing from the right, the objective is:
1) To see how many concrete bases are needed in order to prevent the panels from blowing away by typhoon.

This is the setup of the system, I divided the panels groups into 5 groups (01 to 05):

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For the test:

  1. Average wind speed is 70m/s, with wind gest 85m/s.
  2. To save CPU resources, I only want to test panel groups “01” and “03”.
  3. I want to test upward forces acting on panel groups “01” and “03”.
  4. I want to test moment forces acting on panel groups “01” and “03”.

But I have several questions / problems:

  1. Do you have any comments for the mesh and refinements?

  2. The thickness of the solar panel is only 35mm. How can I create better mesh for the edge of the panels?

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  3. I applied symmetry for these 3 faces, is it correct?

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  4. For the Simulation Control, I use the following settings, but I find that the simulation takes a very long time, and stopping at about 3%. What’s wrong with my settings? And how could I achieve what I want based on the limited CPU resources?
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  5. How the “Write control” & “Write interval” in the “Simulation Control” and “Forces and Moments” boxes are related?
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  6. Any comments in Numerics?

Thank you very much.

2

Hi, this is Fillia :slight_smile:
I have a few recommendations regarding your case:

  1. I suggest you use the Standard mesher instead of the Hex dominant. You can find information about the refinements you can use on the surfaces of the panels here: Standard Mesher | Meshing for CAE | Documentation | SimScale

  2. Increase the domain of the simulation. Use this project as reference: 'Wind field over city landscape' simulation project by tsite - #2 by tsite

  3. It is important that there is a long distance from the model to the outlet of the domain. So it was surprising that this is the inlet and the outlet, the distances should be flipped, so there’s enough space for the flow to evolve after the encounter with the solid body.

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  1. Instead of Symmetry you can use ‘Slip’ boundary condition.

By the way, why do you need a transient simulation? And why 70 m/sec as the velocity inlet?

Best regards,
Fillia

3

Thanks for your reply, I’ve studied your tutorial, and I find it very useful. I’ve restarted the project and created a new mesh according to your advice, it looks quite good now:
Project 2

I would like to simulate the effect of typhoon on solar panels. The highest wind speed is around 70m/s and the gust of wind is 85m/s. So, in this situation, should I use transient simulation? Or steady state simulation should be more suitable?
Is it possible to simulate the effect of wind gust?

This is the detail of that typhoon:

4

I’ve run a simulation based on your advice, have I done it correctly?