• Wind and Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.449-468
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• 2015

Current wind-resistance designs of large-scale indirect dry cooling towers (IDCTs) exclude an important factor: the influence of the ventilation rate for radiator shutter on wind loads on the outer surfaces of the tower shell. More seemingly overlooked aspects are the effects of various ventilation rates on the wind pressure distribution on the tower surfaces of two IDCTs, and the feature of the flow field around them. In order to investigate the effects of the radiator shutter ventilation rates on the aerodynamic interference between IDCTs, this paper established the numerical wind tunnel model based on the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) technology, and analyzed the influences of various radiator shutter ventilation rates on the aerodynamic loads acting upon a single and two extra-large IDCTs during building, installation, and operation stages. Through the comparison with the results of physical wind tunnel test and different design codes, the results indicated that: the influence of the ventilation rate on the flow field and shape coefficients on the outer surface of a single IDCT is weak, and the curve of mean shape coefficients is close to the reference curve provided by the current design code. In a two-tower combination, the ventilation rate significantly affects the downwind surface of the front tower and the upwind surface of the back tower, and the larger positive pressure shifts down along the upwind surface of the back tower as the ventilation rate increases. The ventilation rate significantly influences the drag force coefficient of the back tower in a two-tower combination, the drag force coefficient increases with the ventilation rate and reaches the maximum in a building status of full ventilation, and the maximum drag coefficient is 11% greater than that with complete closure.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.559-575
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• 2016

In order to investigate the influence of different blade positions on aerodynamic load and wind loads and load-effects of large scale wind turbine tower under the halt state, we take a certain 3 MW large scale horizontal axis three-blade wind turbine as the example for analysis. First of all, numerical simulation was conducted for wind turbine flow field and aerodynamic characteristics under different halt states (8 calculating conditions in total) based on LES (large eddy simulation) method. The influence of different halt states on the average and fluctuating wind pressure coefficients of turbine tower surface, total lift force and resistance coefficient, circular flow and wake flow characteristics was compared and analysed. Then on this basis, the time-domain analysis of wind loads and load-effects was performed for the wind turbine tower structure under different halt states by making use of the finite element method. The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: The halt positions of wind blade could have a big impact on tower circular flow and aerodynamic distribution, in which Condition 5 is the most unfavourable while Condition 1 is the most beneficial condition. The wind loads and load-effects of disturbed region of tower is obviously affected by different halt positions of wind blades, especially the large fluctuating displacement mean square deviation at both windward and leeward sides, among which the maximum response occurs in $350^{\circ}$ to the tower top under Condition 8; the maximum bending moment of tower bottom occurs in $330^{\circ}$ under Condition 2. The extreme displacement of blade top all exceeds 2.5 m under Condition 5, and the maximum value of windward displacement response for the tip of Blade 3 under Condition 8 could reach 3.35 m. All these results indicate that the influence of halt positions of different blades should be taken into consideration carefully when making wind-resistance design for large scale wind turbine tower.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.485-505
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• 2014

This study aimed to develop an approach to accurately predict the wind models and wind effects of large wind turbines. The wind-induced vibration characteristics of a 5 MW tower-blade coupled wind turbine system have been investigated in this paper. First, the blade-tower integration model was established, which included blades, nacelle, tower and the base of the wind turbine system. The harmonic superposition method and modified blade element momentum theory were then applied to simulate the fluctuating wind field for the rotor blades and tower. Finally, wind-induced responses and equivalent static wind loads (ESWL) of the system were studied based on the modified consistent coupling method, which took into account coupling effects of resonant modes, cross terms of resonant and background responses. Furthermore, useful suggestions were proposed to instruct the wind resistance design of large wind turbines. Based on obtained results, it is shown from the obtained results that wind-induced responses and ESWL were characterized with complicated modal responses, multi-mode coupling effects, and multiple equivalent objectives. Compared with the background component, the resonant component made more contribution to wind-induced responses and equivalent static wind loads at the middle-upper part of the tower and blades, and cross terms between background and resonant components affected the total fluctuation responses, while the background responses were similar with the resonant responses at the bottom of tower.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.685-701
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• 2016

Downbursts are of great harm to transmission lines and many towers can even be destroyed. The downburst wind field model by Chen and Letchford was applied, and the wind loads of two typical transmission towers in inland areas and littoral areas were calculated separately. Spatial finite element models of the transmission towers were established by elastic beam and link elements. The wind loads as well as the dead loads of conductors and insulators were simplified and applied on the suspension points by concentrated form. Structural analysis on two typical transmission towers under normal wind and downburst was completed. The bearing characteristics and the failure modes of the transmission towers under downburst were determined. The failure state of tower members can be judged by the calculated stress ratios. It shows that stress states of the tower members were mainly controlled by 45 degree wind load. For the inland areas with low deign wind velocity, though the structural height is not in the highest wind velocity zone of downburst, the wind load under downburst is much higher than that under normal wind. The main members above the transverse separator of the legs will be firstly destroyed. For the littoral areas with high deign wind velocity, the wind load under downburst is lower than under normal wind. Transmission towers are not controlled by the wind loads from downbursts in design process.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 2020

This paper presents a comparative structural analysis of lattice hybrid tower with six legs with conventional tubular steel tower for an onshore wind turbine using finite element method. Usually a lattice hybrid tower will have a conventional industry standard 'L' profile section for the lattice construction with four legs. In this work, the researcher attempted to identify and analyze the strength of six legged lattice hybrid tower designed with a special profile instead of four legged L profile. And to compare the structural benefits of special star profile with the conventional tubular tower. Using Ansys, a commercial FEM software, both static and dynamic structural analyses were performed. A simplified finite element model that represents the wind turbine tower was created using Shell elements. An ultimate load condition was applied to check the stress level of the tower in the static analysis. For the dynamic analysis, the frequency extraction was performed in order to obtain the natural frequencies of the tower.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.19 no.4 s.74
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• pp.369-374
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• 2006

This paper describes dynamic characteristics of a power transmission tower consisting of lots of power lines and insulators. A numerical 3D modeling for the static, dynamic and buckling analyses of the power transmission tower is presented considering the case when the power lines are cut. Eigenvalue analysis indicates that the transmission tower shows different behavior comparing to usual structures governed by several low modes. The transmission tower is governed by lots of modes. It is verified that the transmission tower is structurally safe against the static wind and buckling loads. But the structural and buckling safety is not guaranteed when all power lines are cut, which comes to collapse the transmission tower. Further study is in need to overcome such case. Wind dynamic analysis shows that fluctuating wind loads increase the response of the tower.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.798-804
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• 2011

In this paper, optimal spot weld layout design for a shock tower structure is presented. This design increases the fatigue life of the spot-welds thereby increasing the fatigue life of the shock tower itself. In order to predict the fatigue life, a quasi-static analysis has been conducted then a fatigue analysis was performed through the application of random vibration loads. In order to optimize the spot weld layout, the design variables that have an effect on the spot weld fatigue life were determined. A spot weld fatigue analysis was then conducted based on the experiment design. Finally, a response surface model was made using the fatigue analysis results and an optimized spot weld layout model, one that increases the fatigue life of the spot welds and thereby the fatigue life of the shock tower, was developed.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 1998

This paper describes wind investigations for the Leaning Tower of Pisa which were conducted as part of an overall evaluation of its behaviour. Normally a short, stiff and heavy building would not be a candidate for detailed wind analyses. However, because of extremely high soil pressures developed from its inclination, there has been increasing concern that environmental loading such as wind actions could combine with existing conditions to cause the collapse of the tower. The studies involved wind assessment at the site as a function of wind direction, analysis of historical wind data to determine extreme wind probabilities of occurrence, estimation of structural properties, analytical and boundary layer wind tunnel investigations of wind loads and evaluation of the response with special concern for loads in the direction of inclination of the tower and significant wake effects from the neighboring cathedral for critical wind directions. The conclusions discuss the role of wind on structural safety, the precision of results attained and possible future studies involving field measurements aimed at validating or improving the analytical and boundary layer wind tunnel based assessments.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.4
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• pp.479-497
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• 2019

In the current code design, the use of a uniform internal pressure coefficient of cooling towers as internal suction cannot reflect the 3D characteristics of flow field inside the tower body with different ventilation rate of shutters. Moreover, extreme weather such as heavy rain also has a direct impact on aerodynamic force on the internal surface and changes the turbulence effect of pulsating wind. In this study, the world's tallest cooling tower under construction, which stands 210m, is taken as the research object. The algorithm for two-way coupling between wind and rain is adopted. Simulation of wind field and raindrops is performed iteratively using continuous phase and discrete phase models, respectively, under the general principles of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Firstly, the rule of influence of 9 combinations of wind speed and rainfall intensity on the volume of wind-driven rain, additional action force of raindrops and equivalent internal pressure coefficient of the tower body is analyzed. The combination of wind velocity and rainfall intensity that is most unfavorable to the cooling tower in terms of distribution of internal pressure coefficient is identified. On this basis, the wind/rain loads, distribution of aerodynamic force and working mechanism of internal pressures of the cooling tower under the most unfavorable working condition are compared between the four ventilation rates of shutters (0%, 15%, 30% and 100%). The results show that the amount of raindrops captured by the internal surface of the tower decreases as the wind velocity increases, and increases along with the rainfall intensity and ventilation rate of the shutters. The maximum value of rain-induced pressure coefficient is 0.013. The research findings lay the basis for determining the precise values of internal surface loads of cooling tower under extreme weather conditions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.1455-1462
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• 2012

As the size of a wind turbine increases, the mechanical structure has to have an increasing mechanical stiffness that is sufficient to withstand mechanical fatigue loads over a lifespan of more than 20 years. However, this leads to a heavier mechanical design, which means a high material cost during wind turbine manufacturing. Therefore, lightweight design of a wind turbine is an important design constraint. Usually, a lightweight mechanical structure has low damping. Therefore, if it is subjected to a disturbance, it will oscillate continuously. This study deals with the active damping control of a wind turbine tower. An algorithm that mitigates the mechanical loads of a wind turbine tower is introduced. The effectiveness of this algorithm is verified through a numerical simulation using GH Bladed, which is a commercial aero-elastic code for wind turbines.