Numerical method prediction on wind loads of floating photovoltaic power stations

Wind load is the main environmental loads of the floating array. For large-scale floating PV power stations, the wind-induced interference effect is significant. There are no mature methods to assess the wind load. Based on multi-scale analysis, a new numerical prediction method is proposed to forecast the wind load of a floating photovoltaic power station. The geometric model of the array is simplified through numerical simulations. The feasibility of using the simplified models to calculate wind load of the square array is verified. The load distribution rules of 30 (row)×28(column) array and 100 (row)×12(column) array at the maximum load wind direction are calculated using 145 million and 236 million grid cells, respectively. The changing rules of the environmental load of each component are analyzed with the rows and columns of the array. The prediction of the environmental load of the 195 (row)×98(column) array is given based on the analysis. The results show that the solar panels are the main wind components, which bears more than 80% of the wind load. The upstream components have interference effects on the downstream components and the wind load secondary peak is formed in the fifth row of windward. The internal loads of the array basically tend to be stable. The study solves the problem that the overall wind load of large-scale floating arrays cannot be directly calculated, and provides a reference for the wind resistance design of floating photovoltaic power stations.