ABSTRACT
This article presents an evaluation of the impact of photovoltaic panels on the distribution of wind pressure coefficients on a flat roof. Photovoltaic panels interfere with the natural airflow, causing substantial changes in the magnitude and direction of wind-induced forces, which are critical for the structural integrity and load-bearing capacity of steel roof cladding and steel supporting elements. This phenomenon remains largely unaddressed in both the existing scientific literature and current design standards. Consequently, the findings of this study aim toaddress this gap by providing essential data to inform and enhance the accuracy of wind load assessments in engineering practices. The analysis was performed using advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to simulate wind tunnel conditions. The study emphasizes the modelling of the numerical wind tunnel and highlights the necessity of optimizing the finite element mesh as a compromise between computational time and result accuracy. This article presents results for several cases that differ in the number and arrangement of photovoltaic panels. The analysis focuses on the two most common configurations of photovoltaic panels. Wind flow simulations conducted in the numerical wind tunnel facilitate the determination of the external pressure coefficient values for all scenarios examined.
