Experimental Study on Structural Responses of Floating Photovoltaic System with Numerous Buoys and Connection Beams

Abstract

The studies on floating photovoltaic systems at inland water or ocean are increasingly conducted, highlighting the advantages of the system such as high power generation efficiency per unit area, an infinity of resource, and so on. Most floating photovoltaic generation structures have the constitution of multiple modules consisting of numerous buoys and connection beams. For exact engineering judgment on structural integrity of the designed structure, a model test, as well as numerical analysis should be conducted. In this work, model test on total structure with thousands of buoys and connection beams, which is designed by KHNP (Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co., Ltd.) and KRISO (Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering), is carried out in ocean engineering basin of KRISO. The structure consists of 210 modules which have 8 buoys and 14 connection beams in each. Through the model test, the motions of buoys, the structural responses of connection beams, and loads on mooring lines are analyzed and the results are compared according to wave excitation directions.