Prototyping Roof Mounts for Photovoltaic (PV) Panels: Design, Construction and CFD Validation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37934/cfdl.14.2.5971Keywords:
CFD, Roof Mounting, Building-integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) PanelsAbstract
Many countries have committed to using renewable energy and increasingly encourage the use of solar panels in residential dwellings part of achieving sustainability goals. However, building regulations and standards are often slow to catch up. In New Zealand, there is no specified standard for the mechanical structure when mounting the solar panels to the roof. Solar panel mounts can cause significant damage to the roof in the presence of environmental stressors, such as heavy rain and high-speed wind gusts. This paper presents the process of designing a novel mounting unit for solar panels using computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tools to prototype the unit. The prototype unit is easy to install and can accommodate a range of solar tiles manufactured by leading manufacturers. The proposed mount design addresses issues identified with current mounts, such as roof leaks, tilting of the tiles, and corrosion of mounting units by design optimization and proper material selection. Additionally, we compare the maximum temperature for each part of the unit to the CFD results and come up with an average error of 3.14-3.82%.
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