Experimental Study of Pulling-Out Capacity of Foundation for Solar Array Mounting Frames
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TECHNICAL NOTE
Experimental Study of Pulling-Out Capacity of Foundation for Solar Array Mounting Frames Ashish Agarwal1 • Hassan Irtaza1 • Mehboob A. Khan1
Received: 11 October 2019 / Accepted: 23 September 2020 Ó Indian Geotechnical Society 2020
Abstract Solar energy became the cheapest mode of energy generation in recent years because of the cost-effective techniques causing exponential reduction of solar installation cost. Solar arrays installed in these solar farms are susceptible to wind-driven forces, which may uplift array and mounting frame foundation. Due to high wind, extensive damages of the solar panels, array mounting frame, and foundations have been observed globally in the recent past. A number of the solar array foundation failed due to the uplifting of the foundation by intensive windinduced lift forces. To improve pull-out resistance of solar array foundations, a comparative experimental study was done to determine the pull-out capacity of steel pile having varying diameter and length in three different soil conditions, i.e. clayey soil, sandy soil, and mixed soil. Helical piles were found to be a cost-effective improvement over plain piles to resist uplift forces. A mathematical expression is also proposed based on a number of soil and pile parameters, to determine the pulling-out capacity of helical piles, and analytically determined capacity is compared with experimental findings. Reliability analysis was also done to determine the effectiveness of the proposed mathematical expression to determine the pull-out load. Earlier, a numerical study has been carried out for the determination of wind loads over various solar arrays tilted & Ashish Agarwal [email protected] Hassan Irtaza [email protected] Mehboob A. Khan [email protected] 1
Department of Civil Engineering, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, India
at different angles and subjected to extreme wind. Computational fluid dynamics techniques for turbulent wind flow using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations have been used to predict lift and drag coefficients on ground-mounted solar arrays with varied tilt angle and wind incidence. To effectively resist lift forces induced over the solar array, the foundation should be carefully designed with optimum pulling out capacity for precise lift forces determined using numerically obtained force coefficients. Keywords Solar array foundation Pull-out capacity Steel plain/helical piles Reliability analysis
Introduction With the advent of affordable solar technology, the global market has shifted from conventional sources of energy to renewable sources, specifically toward solar energy in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Globally, solar energy installation superseded the other conventional modes of energy generation annual installation in 2018 [1]. More than 600 GW installed capacity of solar energy has been estimated to reach globally by the end of 2019, out of which more than 80% installed as ground-mounted large solar farms [2]. Mega solar farms
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