Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures provides requirements for general structural design and includes means for determining dead, live, soil, flood, wind, snow, rain, atmospheric ice, and earthquake loads, as well as their combinations, which are suitable for inclusion in building codes and other documents. This Standard, a revision of ASCE/SEI 7-05, offers a complete update and reorganization of the wind load provisions, expanding them from one chapter into six. The Standard contains new ultimate event wind maps with corresponding reductions in load factors, so that the loads are not affected, and updates the seismic loads with new risk-targeted seismic maps. The snow, live, and atmospheric icing provisions are updated as well. In addition, the Standard includes a detailed Commentary with explanatory and supplementary information designed to assist building code committees and regulatory authorities. Standard ASCE/SEI 7 is an integral part of building codes in the United States. Many of the load provisions are substantially adopted by reference in the International Building Code and the NFPA 5000 Building Construction and Safety Code. Structural engineers, architects, and those engaged in preparing and administering local building codes will find this Standard an essential reference in their practice. Note: New orders are fulfilled from the second printing, which incorporates the errata to the first printing.

Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures

Simulation tools are increasingly employed towards quantifying the lifetime of photovoltaic (PV) modules while providing valuable insights into the various failure modes. The use of the finite element method (FEM) in this regard has been especially popular because of its flexibility and the ability to quantify stress levels for a large variety of scenarios ranging from process-induced stress up to field conditions. The thermo-mechanical behaviour of the module or its components is often considered due to the link with common field failures such as cell cracks, interconnection failures, glass fracture, delamination and many others. However, the approaches used, the various inputs considered and the obtained results are highly scattered and sometimes conflicting. This work provides a structured review of the reported simulation approaches and resulting insights obtained through thermo-mechanical finite element simulations on commercial as well as novel PV module technologies. The influence and validity of various inputs such as the used material models, boundary conditions and other assumptions are discussed. Learnings and best practices can be leveraged by future simulations to expand on and accelerate the design-for-reliability capabilities of finite element models for PV modules.

Stress and strain within photovoltaic modules using the finite element method: A critical review

Downstream interference effect of high-rise buildings under turbulent boundary layer flow

Standardization of raw wind speed data under complex terrain conditions: A data-driven scheme

A wind load design method for ground-mounted multi-row solar arrays based on a compilation of wind tunnel experiments

The flow interaction between two identical neighboring twin square prisms in a staggered arrangement in an open terrain was investigated experimentally. The downwind prism was mounted on a rigid-aeroelastic setup in an open-terrain boundary layer flow to measure its acrosswind root-mean-square responses and aerodynamic damping ratios. By varying the relative location of the upwind prism and the Scruton number associated with the downwind prism, the acrosswind aeroelastic behavior of the downwind prism was analyzed and compared to that of an isolated one. Results showed that the acrosswind root-mean-square response of the downwind prism could be either suppressed or enhanced by the wake flow produced by the neighboring upwind prism. Besides the assessment of the wake effect of the downwind prism, finally, regressed relationships were presented to describe the variation of the aerodynamic damping ratio so as to predict its acrosswind fluctuating response numerically.

/pdf/the-acrosswind-response-of-the-downwind-prism-in-a-twin-1uofyx6otl.pdf

The acrosswind response of the downwind prism in a twin-prism system with a staggered arrangement

This study experimentally determines the wind loads on a stand-alone solar array (length-to-width ratio of 0.19; 1/10-scale commercial modules). The freestream velocity in a uniform flow is 14.5 ± 0.1 m/s, and the turbulence intensity is 0.3%. The angle of tilt ranges from 10° to 80° and the wind is incident at angle of 0°–180°. Mean surface pressure measurements on the upper and the lower surface of the inclined solar panels are used to calculate the lift coefficient. For the angle of incidence of 0°–60° for the wind, the variation in the lift coefficient with the angle of tilt is U-shaped. The formation of a strong windward corner vortex results in greater lift force on the right half of the inclined plate for the angle of incidence of 30°–45° for the wind.

Wind loads on a PV array

The present study is to establish a numerical model capable of predicting flow past discrete coniferous trees, so as to provide a handy tool for pedestrian wind analysis during the preliminary design stage for local wind environments. In the study, a tree factor was proposed to reflect the effect due to the existence of the trees. Besides the applications of numerical computations in flow analysis, wind tunnel measurements were also performed to guide and confirm the numerical simulations. By comparing the velocity profiles at certain downstream cross-sections of tree panels, the variation of the tree factor was calibrated and the result can be readily used to predict the flow around discrete coniferous trees. Results also showed that the proposed tree factor generally increased with increases in the volume ratio and horizontal thickness of the tree body. Based on the calibrated relationship of the tree factor, finally, additional numerical computations were performed to simulate flow past an isolated tre...

On the simulation of flow around discrete coniferous trees

https://jafmonline.net/JournalArchive/download?file_ID=46609&issue_ID=250

Effect of turbulent uniform flow past a two-dimensional square cylinder

A scaffolding system model at one side of the exterior surfaces of a square building was set in the wind tunnel to measure the wind forces on the system in various oncoming-flow directions. The sca...

Cheng Yang Chung

Papers

The acrosswind response of the downwind prism in a twin-prism system with a staggered arrangement

Wind loads on a PV array

On the simulation of flow around discrete coniferous trees

Effect of turbulent uniform flow past a two-dimensional square cylinder

Investigations on the wind force and flow of a scaffolding system