Structural Material Selection
Material selection was a major aspect in the structural design. Steel was the first structural material to be considered; yet producing a structure out of aluminum has its benefits as well. Per Conservatek, an aluminum structure company, aluminum is corrosion resistant, does not rust, self-heals if scratched, has design flexibility, and is lightweight, which would reduce the assembly and installation costs. While all these characteristics were beneficial for the task, we were too inexperienced to design an aluminum structure. Steel, on a per weight basis, is also much less expensive than aluminum, is much heavier to counteract uplift from wind, and was chosen as the primary structural material.
The biggest load that had to be taken into consideration was the wind load. Since our canopy is an open structure, it acts as a wing. If it is not securely tied down, the canopy had the possibility of blowing away. Deflection was another important design criteria. Since the canopy structure is going to be supporting solar panels, a minimum of deflection of one inch was decided to be sufficient to not crack the panels and also have our structure not be over designed. |