ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Wind Engineering and Science
A novel simulation framework to estimate dynamic response of a solar panel array under stationary stochastic wind loads
Provisionally accepted
- 1Coastal Carolina University, Conway, United States
- 2University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, United States
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This paper presents a novel simulation framework for estimating the dynamic response of a full-scale ground-mounted solar panel array under stationary wind loads that are spatially correlated across the length of the solar panel array. Specifically, the framework uses mean pressure coefficient distributions along the length of a 1:10 prototype scale of the solar panel array from smooth inflow derived using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation software The Wind Engineering with Uncertainty Quantification (WE-UQ). Note that for the CFD simulation, the input wind field across the length of the solar panel array is uniform along the horizontal direction, and the wind field is smooth inflow. Next, the simulated stochastic wind loads are generated from the spatially varying and correlated stationary wind velocities along the full-scale solar panel array using a stochastic wave approach from the spectral representation method (SRM), as well as the mean pressure coefficients derived from the CFD simulation. Further, the simulated stochastic wind loads are applied to a solar panel array finite element model using the Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (OpenSees) to simulate dynamic responses. Displacements of solar panel modules and torque strains on the torque tube are estimated to observe the performance of the solar panel array. The mode shapes and the corresponding frequencies can be identified from the results, and the accuracy can be validated by comparing the frequencies obtained from the solar panel model. Further, strong mean wind velocities are applied in the proposed simulation framework to assess the torsional strain of the torque tube. Consequently, the proposed simulation framework provides a valuable, novel tool for solar panel array analysis that is much more computationally efficient than existing methods.
Keywords: aerodynamic torque loads, CFD Simulation, Coherence function, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), constant mean wind velocities, detached eddy simulation (DES), Displacements of solar panel modules, Dynamic response
Received: 18 Nov 2025; Accepted: 22 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zhang, Li and DeJong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Matthew DeJong
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