Study and Evaluation of a Solar Floating Traction under Severe Wind Conditions

Solar cells have been among the first such clean energy groups that have been used, talked about, and adopted extensively in many areas. One drawback of using solar cells for energy supply not only in households but also in large cities is the space needed as well as usually requiring a flat area. For these reasons, the construction of solar farms over water is a popular concept and continues to be of interest in Thailand and the rest of the world. This research provided a case study of implementing large-scale solar cells in Southeast Asia where unexpected typhoons are common during the monsoon season. This can be addressed by binding the solar panels together to make a large platform that can remain intact in the water under various conditions. Engineers need to be confident that such binding will be safe enough to ensure the solar floating platform has no movement which may cause unexpected damage. This study developed and evaluated solar panel traction with an arrangement of 9 x 28 and 28 x 9 panels under severe wind conditions of 120 kilometers per hour (33.33 meters per second) which is equivalent to typhoons in the region. The evaluation used empirical and numerical models, and wind-tunnel testing. The resultant equation was: D (N, M) = 2075.8 N 0.6532 M 0.9052 and D = Kv (V) 2075.8 N 0.6532 M 0.9052 where N and M are the numbers of platforms in columns and rows, respectively, Kv (V) = (0.019564618+0.007704667V)/(1-0.0004656279V), and V is the wind speed (km/h). The investigation found that the predicted traction results using the derived equations was in good agreement with wind-tunnel testing for a proposed platform.