Experimental Study on Effect Factors of Wind-Induced Response of Flexible Photovoltaic Support Structure

In recent years, the proportion of flexible photovoltaic (PV) support structures (FPSS) in PV power generation has gradually increased, and the wind-induced response of FPSS has gradually been noticed. In this study, the wind-induced responses of a FPSS with a single row and a single span were investigated by aeroelastic model wind tunnel tests. The effects of structural parameters of FPSS were systematically analyzed on 17 test cases (including inclinations, module spacings, initial tensions, spans and module sizes), and the variation of flutter critical wind velocities with structural parameters was obtained. The experimental results show that the most unfavorable wind direction is 180°. The static wind-induced response is mainly affected by the module inclination angle, module spacing and the structure span. The vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of the test models occurs in some specific test cases at low wind velocity, and it can be easily suppressed by changing the structural parameters. The flutter occurs at both directions of 0° and 180° when the wind velocity increases to a critical value. With the increase of module inclination angle, the flutter critical wind velocity of FPSS decreases first and then increases, and the most unfavorable module inclination is 25°. It is beneficial for suppressing the structure flutter by increasing the cable initial tension and the module spacing, and decreasing the span of the FPSS. Changing the module size will affect the aerodynamic characteristics and structural frequency of the structure, thereby affecting the wind-induced vibration of the structure.