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Old 06-14-11, 12:28 PM   #5
Daox
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Well, it looks like the rack you see above will do amost fine. I added one brace between the two legs and that really reduced the peak stress (which will cause a failure at that point). The max stress you can see on the graph is 3,060 psi. The max stress 'northern white pine' can handle is 3,400 psi. So, it looks like I'm in the clear for 80 mph winds.

Here is a picture of the stress distribution. You can see the one brace that was added in an effort to reduce the stress on the junction of the shorter leg and bottom solar panel mounting 2x4. It worked out great and reduced the peak stress by half. I'm still going to do a little tweaking to see if I can get the stress down a bit more. But, I think I'm pretty much in the clear.

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Last edited by Daox; 06-14-11 at 12:32 PM..
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