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Presentation
POD-Accelerated CFD Analysis of Wind Loads on PV Systems
10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics (HEFAT) (2014)
  • Victor Huayamave, Central Technological Corporation
  • Andres Ceballos, Central Technological Corporation
  • Eduardo Divo, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
  • Alain Kassab, University of Central Florida
  • Stephen Barkaszi, University of Central Florida
  • Hubert Seigneur, University of Central Florida
  • Carolina Barriento, Central Technological Corporation
Abstract
A real-time response framework based on the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) method is proposed to provide a solution that would not only take advantage of the great detail and accuracy of a grid-converged 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis but also calculate, in real-time, flow features and loads that result from wind-induced drag and lift forces on Photo-Voltaic (PV) systems. The key is to generate beforehand and off-line an extensive set of solutions, i.e. pressure and shear stress distributions over the PV system surface, using CFD within a predefined design space (module sizes, wind speeds, topographies, roof dimensions, pitch, etc.). These solutions are then organized to form the basis snapshots of a POD decomposition matrix. An interpolation network using radial-basis functions (RBF) will be employed to predict the solution from the POD decomposition given a set of values of the design variables. The entire POD matrix and RBF interpolation network are stored in a database that can be accessed remotely by the wind-load calculator tool and therefore predict the solution, flow features and loads, in real time. The trained POD-RBF acts as a multifaceted interpolation that preserves the physics of the problem and has been tested and validated by performing the fast algebraic interpolation to obtain the pressure distribution on the PV system surface and comparing them to actual grid-converged fully-turbulent 3D CFD solutions at the specified values of the design variables (wind speed and angle). 
Keywords
  • computational fluid dynamics,
  • proper orthogonal decomposition,
  • photovoltaic systems,
  • radial-basis functions
Publication Date
July 16, 2014
Location
Orlando, FL
Comments
This paper appeared on pages 1770-1777 of the volume of selected papers from this conference published by Taylor & Francis in 2016.
Citation Information
Victor Huayamave, Andres Ceballos, Eduardo Divo, Alain Kassab, et al.. "POD-Accelerated CFD Analysis of Wind Loads on PV Systems" 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics (HEFAT) (2014)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/Victor_Huayamave/11/