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Simulations to determine the drag coefficient of a floating photovoltaic system

A floating photovoltaic (FPV) system is a structure of solar cells placed on water, where the solar cells are mounted on floating modules that have to be anchored. To know the size of the anchoring equipment, the forces on the FPV need to be determined. The main force affecting the FPV is the wind force. The force from the wind is directly correlated with the drag coefficient, hence we need to determine the drag coefficient to understand the system. The goal of this thesis is to first find the difference in the drag coefficient between two configurations of FPVs and for a second case with a floater added in front of both setups. To determine the difference in drag coefficient, between the two cases, the wind flow over the FPVs were studied by simulations using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and calculating the drag coefficient for each case. The simulations showed that the difference in drag coefficient in the cases without a floater had the biggest difference between the first FPVs where the difference was a factor of two. For the cases with the floater, the simulations gave a similar result for the two configurations, leading to a smaller difference between the two configurations. We conclude that if a system without a floater is built, the configurations of the FPVs are important, while if the floater is added in front of the FPV there is less importance in the configurations of the FPVs.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-189064
Date January 2021
CreatorsForsgren, Fritz
PublisherUmeå universitet, Institutionen för fysik
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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