ANALYSIS OF SOLAR PANEL SUPPORT （分析太阳能电池板的支持）.pdf

3rd ANSA μETA International Conference September 9-11, 2009 Olympic Convention Centre, Porto Carras Grand Resort Hotel, Halkidiki Greece ANALYSIS OF SOLAR PANEL SUPPORT STRUCTURES 1A. Mihailidis, 1K. Panagiotidis, 1K. Agouridas* 1Lab. of Machine Elements Machine Design, Dep. of Mechanical engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece KEYWORDS Solar array, frame structures ABSTRACT The use of renewable energy resources is increasing rapidly. Following this trend, the implementation of large area solar arrays is considered to be a necessity. Several design approaches of the supporting structures have been presented in order to achieve the maximum overall efficiency. They are loaded mainly by aerodynamic forces. International regulations as well as the competition between industries define that they must withstand the enormous loads that result from air velocities over 120 km/h. Furthermore, they must have a life expectancy of more than 20 years. In this paper, the analysis of two different design approaches of solar panel support structures is presented. The analysis can be split in the following steps. 1. Load calculation, which includes the creation of a simple CFD model using ANSA as pre- processor and ANSYS-CFX as solver to determine the pressure distribution on the solar panel area and the application of EUROCODE 1 to determine the resultant magnitude of the forces acting on the surface of the solar panels. 2. Analysis of the structure, which includes the creation of a FE model using ANSA as pre- processor. Loads calculated in the first step are applied to the model. As solver MSC Nastran is used. 3. Identification of the structure critical points. According to the results weak points are redesigned in order to increase the endurance. 1. INTRODUCTION, SUPPORT STRUCTURE DESIGNS Nowadays the demand for clean, renewable energy sources is increasing. In order to collect solar power effectively,