• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.906-919
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• 2015

The Deep Draft Semi-Submersible (DDS) concepts are known for their favourable vertical motion performance. However, the DDS may experience critical Vortex-Induced Motion (VIM) stemming from the fluctuating forces on the columns. In order to investigate the current-induced excitation forces of VIM, an experimental study of flow characteristics around four square-section cylinders in a square configuration is presented. A number of column spacing ratios and array attack angles were considered to investigate the parametric influences. The results comprise flow patterns, drag and lift forces, as well as Strouhal numbers. It is shown that both the drag and lift forces acting on the cylinders are slightly different between the various L/D values, and the fluctuating forces peak at L/D = 4.14. The lift force of downstream cylinders reaches its maximum at around ${\alpha}=15^{\circ}$. Furthermore, the flow around circular-section-cylinder arrays is also discussed in comparison with that of square cylinders.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.37-56
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• 2014

The evaluation of pressure fields acting on slender structures under wind loads is currently performed in experimental aerodynamic tests. For wind-sensitive structures, in fact, the knowledge of global and local wind actions is crucial for design purpose. This paper considers a particular slender structure under wind excitation, representative of most common high-rise buildings, whose experimental wind field on in-scale model was measured in the CRIACIV boundary-layer wind tunnel (University of Florence) for several angles of attack of the wind. It is shown that an efficient reduced model to represent structural response can be obtained by coupling the classical structural modal projection with the so called blowing modes projection, obtained by decomposing the covariance or power spectral density (PSD) wind tensors. In particular, the elaboration of experimental data shows that the first few blowing modes can effectively represent the wind-field when eigenvectors of the PSD tensor are used, while a significantly larger number of blowing modes is required when the covariance wind tensor is used to decompose the wind field.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.147-162
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• 2010

The ground acceleration measured at a point on the earth's surface is composed of several waves that have different phase velocities, arrival times, amplitudes, and frequency contents. For instance, body waves contain primary and secondary waves that have high frequency content and reach the site first. Surface waves are composed of Rayleigh and Love waves that have lower phase velocity, lower frequency content and reach the site next. Some of these waves could be of more damage to the structure depending on their frequency content and associated amplitude. This paper models critical earthquake loads for single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) inelastic structures considering evolution of the seismic waves in time and frequency. The ground acceleration is represented as combination of seismic waves with different characteristics. Each seismic wave represents the energy of the ground motion in certain frequency band and time interval. The amplitudes and phase angles of these waves are optimized to produce the highest damage in the structure subject to explicit constraints on the energy and the peak ground acceleration and implicit constraints on the frequency content and the arrival time of the seismic waves. The material nonlinearity is modeled using bilinear inelastic law. The study explores also the influence of the properties of the seismic waves on the energy demand and damage state of the structure. Numerical illustrations on modeling critical earthquake excitations for one-storey inelastic frame structures are provided.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.225-238
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• 2019

In this paper a novel and efficient computational framework to estimate the stress range versus number of cycles curves experienced by a cable due to external excitations (e.g., seismic excitations, traffic and wind-induced vibrations, among others) is proposed. This study is limited to the wind-cable interaction governed by the Vortex Shedding mechanism which mainly rules cables vibrations at low amplitudes that may lead to their failure due to bending fatigue damage. The algorithm relies on a stochastic approach to account for the uncertainties in the cable properties, initial conditions, damping, and wind excitation which are the variables that govern the wind-induced vibration phenomena in cables. These uncertainties are propagated adopting Monte Carlo simulations and the concept of importance sampling, which is used to reduce significantly the computational costs when new scenarios with different probabilistic models for the uncertainties are evaluated. A high fidelity cable model is also proposed, capturing the effect of its internal wires distribution and helix angles on the cables stress. Simulation results on a 15 mm diameter high-strength steel strand reveal that not accounting for the initial conditions uncertainties or using a coarse wind speed discretization lead to an underestimation of the stress range experienced by the cable. In addition, parametric studies illustrate the computational efficiency of the algorithm at estimating new scenarios with new probabilistic models, running 3000 times faster than the base case.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.5
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• pp.591-604
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• 2022

A gravity wall combined with an anchoring lattice frame (a combined retaining structure) is adopted at a typical engineering site at Dali-Ruili Railway Line China. Where, the combined retaining structure supports a soil deposit covering on different inclined rock slopes. With an aim to investigate and compare the effects of inclined rock slopes on the response of combined retaining structure under seismic excitation, three groups of shaking table tests are conducted. The rock slopes are shaped as planar surfaces inclined at angles of 20°, 30°, and 40° with the horizontal, respectively. The shaking table tests are supplemented by dynamic numerical simulations. The results regarding the horizontal acceleration response, vertical acceleration response, permanent displacement mode, and axial anchor force are comparatively examined. The acceleration response is more susceptible to outer structural profile of combined retaining structure than to inclined angle of rock slope. The permanent displacement decreases when the inclined angle of the rock slope increases within a range of 20°-40°. A critical inclined angle of rock slope exists within a range of 20°-40°, and induces the largest axial anchor force in the combined retaining structure.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.238-246
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• 2023

This paper proposes an effective inertia coefficient (EIC) in the Morison equation for better wave-force calculations. The OC4 semi-submersible floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) platform was considered to test the feasibility. Large diffraction at large Keulegan-Carpenter (KC) numbers and the interaction between columns can result in errors in estimating the wave force using the Morison equation with a theoretical inertia coefficient, which can be corrected by the EIC as a function of the wave period and direction. The horizontal and vertical wave forces were calculated using the Morison equation and potential theory at each column, wave period, and wave direction. The EICs of each column were then obtained, resulting in a minimal difference between the Morison inertia force and the wave excitation force by the potential theory. The EICs, wave forces, phase angles, and dynamic motions were compared to confirm the feasibility of an EIC concept under regular and random waves.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.45 no.11
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• pp.45-54
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• 2008

In this paper, we use particle swarm optimization (PSO) to design a randomly excited and randomly spaced linear array with either the lowest side lobe level (SLL) or the narrowest beamwidth. The positions and the excitation amplitudes of the array elements are considered as variables to be controlled. The beam pattern is optimized by controlling the two variables simultaneously and randomly. The best beam patterns are obtained using PSO in the fitness function where performance is improved by the random assignment of weight coefficients to each angular sector of the beam Pattern. The weight coefficients and angles are obtained through several trial runs. Also, an extra term, ${\beta}{\ast}BW$, is added to the fitness function to account for the beamwidth as well as the SLL. Is produces the best result for the beam pattern with either the lowest SLL or the narrowest beamwidth. In the former case, the SLL and beamwidth are about -43dB and $32.2^{\circ}$, respectively, with only 10 elements. In the latter case, the SLL and beamwidth are about -26dB and $24.2^{\circ}$, respectively.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2017

Historical earthquakes have shown that successive seismic events may occur in regions of high seismicity. Such a sequence of earthquakes has the potential to increase the damage level of the structures, since any rehabilitation between the successive ground motions is practically impossible due to lack of time. Few studies about this issue can be found in literature, most of which focused their attention on the seismic response of SDOF systems or planar frame structures. The aim of the present study is to examine the impact of seismic sequences on the damage level of 3D multistorey R/C buildings with various structural systems. For the purposes of the above investigation a comprehensive assessment is conducted using three double-symmetric and three asymmetric in plan medium-rise R/C buildings, which are designed on the basis of the current seismic codes. The buildings are analyzed by nonlinear time response analysis using 80 bidirectional seismic sequences. In order to account for the variable orientation of the seismic motion, the two horizontal accelerograms of each earthquake record are applied along horizontal orthogonal axes forming 12 different angles with the structural axes. The assessment of the results revealed that successive ground motions can lead to significant increase of the structural damage compared to the damage caused by the corresponding single seismic events. Furthermore, the incident angle can radically alter the successive earthquake phenomenon depending on the special characteristics of the structure, the number of the sequential earthquakes, as well as the distance of the record from the fault.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.390-398
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• 2013

In this paper, an experimental study on sloshing problems in an independent B-type tank of STX Offshore and Shipbuilding Co. is described. Recently STX Offshore and Shipbuilding Co. introduced a new design of an independent B-type tank in order to reduce sloshing impact loads on LNG CCS. This tank has many internal members, so that sloshing flow and the resultant hydrodynamic loads are very different from those in typical membrane tanks. In this study, a series of sloshing experiment have been carried out for 1/50 scale model, and the main characteristics of sloshing load on the independent tank are observed. The properly scaled internal members such as swash bulkhead, center bulkhead and stringers have been installed in the test tank model, but sloshing pressures are measured on the tank walls only. The forced excitation signals have been generated by using the predicted ship motion in irregular sea states. The characteristics of sloshing loads on this tank have been observed in different filling levels with various heading angles, and sea states. In this paper, some key findings from the model tests are discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.1304-1317
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• 2020

The tubes in a heat exchanger, such as a steam generator (SG), are subjected to crossflow, and interaction between tubes and supports can happen, which can cause fretting wear of tubes. Although many experiments and models have been established, some detailed mechanisms are still not sufficiently clear. In this work, more attention is paid to obtain the regulation of impact and sliding in the complex process and many factors, such as excitation forces and clearances. The responses and contact forces were analyzed to obtain clear understanding of the influences of these factors. Room temperature tests in the air were established. The results show that the effect of clearance on the normal work rate is not monotonous and instead has two peaks. The force ratio can influence the normal work rate by changing the distribution of contact angles, which can result in higher sliding in the contact process. Fretting wear tests are conducted, and the wear surfaces are analyzed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX). The results of this work can serve as a reference for impactsliding contact analysis between AVBs and tubes in steam generators.