How To Find Wind Pressure On Solar Panels - Article - Meca Enterprises

07/05/24, 19:16 How to Find Wind Pressure on Solar Panels | Article | Meca Enterprises
How to Find Wind

Pressure on Solar
Panels
Mar 6, 2020
In this article we will investigate the procedure for calculating the design wind
pressure on rooftop solar panels per ASCE 7-16 design code. I feel like the best way to
describe this procedure is by working through an example, and that’s just what we
will do. For this example, we will look at a 30ft tall building with a flat roof in Broken
Arrow, Oklahoma.
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Background:
The typical dimensions for a residential solar panel is 65″ long and 39″ wide.
The design wind speed for zip code 74011 with exposure C and risk category III is
115.0 mph, and the elevation above sea level is 755 ft. We won’t go in depth in this
https://www.mecaenterprises.com/how-to-solar-panel-wind-pressure/ 1/10
article on the procedure for calculating the velocity pressure, but for h=30ft it comes
out to be qh = 32.28 psf.
In ASCE 7-16 there are two sections that cover rooftop solar panels: 29.4.3 and 29.4.4.
Section 29.4.3 addresses buildings of all heights with a flat roof or gable/hip roofs
with a slight slope (less than 7 degrees). Section 29.4.4 covers the other roof slopes.
Each have their own restrictions on the parameters that can be used due to wind
tunnel testing done to develop the procedures and normal use of solar panel arrays.
In this example we will focus on section 29.4.3, which utilizes figure 29.4-7.
Solar Panel Wind Pressure Parameters:
We will use the typical residential solar panel dimensions and we will do 3 rows of 8
panels in the array. The bottom edge of the panel will have a 1 ft gap between the
roof surface and the top edge will have a 3ft gap, giving a tilt angle of 20.3 degs. The
minimum horizontal clear distance between the panels and the edge of the roof is
the larger of 2(h2-hpt) and 4ft. In our case, there is no parapet (hpt) and the clear
distance comes out to be 6ft. The minimum gap between panels is 0.25 inches, but
we will use a spacing of 1.5 inches in this example. For the spacing between each row
(array) of solar panels, we want to optimize this so the rows aren’t in the shadow of
the adjacent row. We will need to know the solar elevation and azimuth for our
location, and this can be found using a Solar Chart Program from the University of
Oregon, as seen below. We are going to use a time range of 10am to about 2:45pm in
the Winter season.
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The chart shows a solar elevation of 22 degrees and an azimuth correction of 35

degrees. Now to find the spacing between the arrays we will divide the height
difference of the panel edges by the tangent of the solar elevation, and then correct
for the azimuth by multiplying this spacing by the cosine of the azimuth correction
and rounding our answer up to the nearest whole inch. This process yields a spacing
of 49 inches, and is illustrated below.
For the sake of this example, I am going to place the solar panels in the center of the
building. Taking into account the panel edge to roof edge (d1=6ft), the spacing
between rows (d2=4.083ft), and the spacing between panels (d3=0.125ft), the building
width parallel to the solar array is 38.875ft (WL=38.875ft) and the building width
perpendicular to the solar array is 36.416ft (WS=36.416ft).
Solar Panel Design Wind Pressure:
The equation we need to solve for the design wind pressure for rooftop solar panels
is:
yp: minimum of (1.2, 0.9+hpt/h)

yc: maximum of (0.6+0.06*Lp, 0.8)
yE: 1.5 for uplift loads on panels that are exposed and within a distance of 1.5*Lp
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from the end of a row at an exposed edge of an array

yE: 1.0 elsewhere for uplift loads and for all downward loads, as illustrated in Fig.
29.4-7
A panel is defined as exposed if d1 to the roof edge > 0.5*h and at least one of the
following applies:
d1 to the adjacent array or roof edge > max (4*h2, 4ft)

d2 to the next adjacent panel > max (4*h2, 4ft)
In our example, the d1 value is set as the minimum horizontal clear edge distance of
6ft, and the height of the building is 30ft. Evaluating the expression for an exposed
panel shows that d1 (6ft) is not greater than 0.5*h (0.5*30=15ft), so all the panels will
use yE = 1.0.
Now solving for our other gamma values:
yp = min(1.2, 0.9+hpt/h) = min(1.2, 0.9+0/30)

yp = 0.9
yc = max(0.6+0.06*Lp, 0.8) = max(0.6+0.06*5.4167ft, 0.8)

yc = 0.925
Utilizing ASCE 7-16 Fig. 29.4-7:
We will need to use Fig. 29.4-7 to find our GCrn,nom value to use in our solar panel
design wind speed equation. For each solar panel, we will need to establish which
zone it is in using the “Building Roof Plan” in the figure. In this example, our boundary
for the edges is actually greater than either of the building widths (2*h=2*30=60 >WS
and WL), thus every panel is in zone 3. The next thing we need is the “Normalized
Wind Area” which is defined as:
An = (1000/[max(Lb,15)^2])*A
– where A is the effective wind area of the solar panel (Lp*Wp) and Lb is the
minimum of (0.4*(h*WL)^0.5, h, Ws)
Lb = (0.4*(30*38.875)^0.5, 30, 36.416)
Lb = 13.66 ft
An = (1000/[max(13.66,15)^2])*(5.4167*3.25)
An = 78.24 ft^2
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Finally, to know which “Nominal Net Pressure Coefficient” graph to use, we need to
know the tilt angle of our solar panels. This can be found by taking the inverse
tangent of the height difference of the panel edges to the roof surface divided by the
length of the panel (w=arctan[(h2-h1)/Lp]). Solving for the tilt angle we get 20.27
degrees (arctan[(3-1)/5.4167]), which means we will use the right GCrn,nom graph
since it is between 15 and 35 degrees.
From inspection of this graph we see that the y-intercept is 3.5 and that the slope is -1
from An = [<1, 500]. This gives us an equation of the line as GCrn,nom = -log(An) + 3.5.
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Plugging in 78.24 ft^2 for An, GCrn,nom equates to 1.607.
Now we can equate GCrn and thus the solar panel design wind pressure, p:
GCrn = yp*yc*yE*GCrn,nom
GCrn = 0.9*0.925*1.0*1.607
GCrn = 1.338
p = qh*GCrn
p = 32.284*1.338
p = 43.191 psf
So with the parameters and location used in the example, each solar panel would see
a design wind pressure of an uplift and downward load of +/- 43.191 psf. Every panel
seeing the same wind pressure isn’t usually the case. If the panel is in a different zone
than another, then the GCrn value will be different. If the panel is considered
exposed, then the yE value will be different giving a different GCrn. So in those cases
you would need to go back and redo the calculations for those panels.
Conclusion:
You may or may not be wondering, is there a faster way to do this? Luckily, our
MecaWind program has these calculations built in and will calculate the design wind
pressure on each solar panel in one analysis run (plus you can see everything
graphically) instead of having to evalute each solar panel or groupings of the solar
panels one at a time. As a comparison, below is the parameters used to calculate the
wind pressure on the solar panels for this example (just happened the wind pressure
is the same for all the panels) and the output MecaWind gives for the same example.
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07/05/24, 19:16 How to Find Wind Pressure on Solar Panels | Article | Meca Enterprises

How to Find Wind

The chart shows a solar elevation of 22 degrees and an azimuth correction of 35

Solar Panel Design Wind Pressure:

yp: minimum of (1.2, 0.9+hpt/h)

from the end of a row at an exposed edge of an array

d1 to the adjacent array or roof edge > max (4*h2, 4ft)

Now solving for our other gamma values:

yp = min(1.2, 0.9+hpt/h) = min(1.2, 0.9+0/30)

yc = max(0.6+0.06Lp, 0.8) = max(0.6+0.065.4167ft, 0.8)

Utilizing ASCE 7-16 Fig. 29.4-7:

Plugging in 78.24 ft^2 for An, GCrn,nom equates to 1.607.

Wind Loads on Tanks

Wind Loads on Solid Signs

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