• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.60-66
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• 2011

Selecting optimal wind turbine generators for wind farm sites in the capacity factor point of view is performed in this study. A program to determine the best wind turbine generator for the maximum capacity factor for a site was developed. The program uses both the wind characteristics of the site of interest and the power curves of the wind turbines. The program developed was applied to find out optimal wind turbine generators of three different sites in complex terrain and successfully yielded the best site dependent wind turbine generators. It was also used to determine the best wind turbine generator of the wind farm currently operating in Korea and proved its usefulness. The program and methodology developed in this study considered to be very useful at the initial design stage of the wind farm to determine the best wind turbine generators for the site of interest.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.489-503
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• 2015

This paper surveys and complements contributions by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to techniques ensuring that the wind tunnel procedure for the design of high-rise structures is based on sound methods and allows unambiguous inter-laboratory comparisons. Developments that enabled substantial advances in these techniques include: Instrumentation for simultaneously measuring pressures at multiple taps; time-domain analysis methods for estimating directional dynamic effects; creation of large simulated extreme directional wind speed data sets; non-parametric methods for estimating mean recurrence intervals (MRIs) of Demand-to-Capacity Indexes (DCIs); and member sizing based on peak DCIs with specified MRIs. To implement these advances changes are needed in the traditional division of tasks between wind and structural engineers. Wind engineers should provide large sets of directional wind speeds, pressure coefficient time series, and estimates of uncertainties in wind speeds and pressure coefficients. Structural engineers should perform the dynamic analyses, estimates of MRIs of wind effects, sensitivity studies, and iterative sizing of structural members. The procedure is transparent, eliminates guesswork inherent in frequency domain methods and due to the lack of pressure measurements, and enables structural engineers to be in full control of the structural design for wind.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.263-275
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• 2023

As a new kind of construction facility for high rise buildings, the integral steel platform scaffold system (ISPS) consisting of the steel skeleton and suspended scaffold faces high wind during the construction procedure. The lattice structure type and existence of core tubes both make it difficult to estimate the wind load and calculate the wind-induced responses. In this study, an aeroelastic model with a geometry scale ratio of 1:25 based on the ISPS for Shanghai Tower, with the representative square profile, is manufactured and then tested in a wind tunnel. The first mode of the prototype ISPS is a torsional one with a frequency of only 0.68 Hz, and the model survives under extreme wind speed up to 50 m/s. The static wind load and wind vibration factors are derived based on the test result and supplementary finite element analysis, offering a reference for the following ISPS design. The spacer at the bottom of the suspended scaffold is suggested to be long enough to touch the core tube in the initial status to prevent the collision. Besides, aerodynamic wind loads and cross-wind loads are suggested to be included in the structural design of the ISPS.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.203-214
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• 2024

Large-span cantilevered roof represents a unique type of structure that is vulnerable to wind loads. Inspired by the need to maximumly reducing the rooftop wind loads, this study examined the feasibility of positioning vented slots on the leading edge, and the effectiveness of such aerodynamic mitigation measures are assessed via both physical and numerical simulations. The reliability of numerical simulation was evaluated via comparisons with the wind tunnel tests. The results indicated that, the variation of venting hole arrangement can cause significant change in the rooftop wind load characteristics. For the cases involved in this study, the maximum reduction of mean and peak wind suction coefficients are found to be 9% and 8% as compared to the original circular slot without venting holes. In addition, the effect of slot shape is also evident. It was shown that the triangular shaped slot tends to increase the wind suction near the leading edge, whereas the hexagonal and octagonal shaped slots are found to decrease the wind suction. In particular, with the installation of octagonal shaped slot, the maximum reduction of wind suction coefficients near the leading edge reaches up to 31% as compared to the circular shaped slot, while the maximum reduction of mean wind suction coefficients is about 30%.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.21-36
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• 2010

A new full scale testing apparatus generically named the Wall of Wind (WoW) has been built by the researchers at the International Hurricane Research Center (IHRC) at Florida International University (FIU). WoW is capable of testing single story building models subjected up to category 3 hurricane wind speeds. Depending on the relative model and WoW wind field sizes, testing may entail blockage issues. In addition, the proximity of the test building to the wind simulator may also affect the aerodynamic data. This study focuses on the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) assessment of the effects on the quality of the aerodynamic data of (i) blockage due to model buildings of various sizes and (ii) wind simulator proximity for various distances between the wind simulator and the test building. The test buildings were assumed to have simple parallelepiped shapes. The computer simulations were performed under both finite WoW wind-field conditions and in an extended Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) wind flow. Mean pressure coefficients for the roof and the windward and leeward walls served as measures of the blockage and wind simulator proximity effects. The study uses the commercial software FLUENT with Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations and a Renormalization Group (RNG) k-${\varepsilon}$ turbulence model. The results indicated that for larger size test specimens (i.e. for cases where the height of test specimen is larger than one third of the wind field height) blockage correction may become necessary. The test specimen should also be placed at a distance greater than twice the height of the test specimen from the fans to reduce proximity effect.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.79-100
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• 2017

The use of wind energy resources is developing rapidly in recent decades. There is an increasing number of wind farms in high wind-velocity areas such as the Pacific Rim regions. Wind turbine towers are vulnerable to tropical cyclones and tower failures have been reported in an increasing number in these regions. Existing post-disaster failure case studies were mostly performed through forensic investigations and there are few numerical studies that address the collapse mode simulation of wind turbine towers under strong wind loads. In this paper, the wind-induced failure analysis of a conventional 65 m hub high 1.5-MW wind turbine was carried out by means of nonlinear response time-history analyses in a detailed finite element model of the structure. The wind loading was generated based on the wind field parameters adapted from the cyclone boundary layer flow. The analysis results indicate that this particular tower fails due to the formation of a full-section plastic hinge at locations that are consistent with those reported from field investigations, which suggests the validity of the proposed numerical analysis in the assessment of the performance of wind-farms under cyclonic winds. Furthermore, the numerical simulation allows to distinguish different failure stages before the dynamic collapse occurs in the proposed wind turbine tower, opening the door to future research on the control of these intermediate collapse phases.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.619-629
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• 2020

Solar towers, which often has a large aspect ratio and low fundamental natural frequency, were extremely prone to large amplitude of wind-induced vibrations, especially Vortex-Induced Vibration (VIV). A tiny Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) with conveniently adjustable eddy current damping was specially designed and manufactured for elastic wind tunnel tests of a solar tower. A series of numerical simulations by using the COMSOL software were conducted to determine three key parameters, including the thickness of the back iron plate and the conductive plate (T_b and T_c), the distance between the magnet and the conductive plate (T_d). Based on the results of numerical simulations, a tiny TMD was manufactured and its structural parameters were experimentally identified. The optimized values of the tiny TMD can be conveniently realized. The tiny TMD was installed at the top of the elastic test model of a 243-meter-high solar tower, and a series of wind tunnel tests were carried out to examine the effectiveness of the TMD in suppressing wind-induced responses of the test model. The results showed that the wind-induced responses could be obviously reduced by the TMD, especially in the cross-wind direction. The cross-wind RMS and peak responses at the critical wind velocity can be reduced by about 86% and 75%, respectively. However, the maximum reduction of the responses at the design wind velocity is about 45%, obviously less than that at the critical wind velocity.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.649-662
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• 2020

The existence of a dam has potential effects on the surrounding wind environment especially when it is located in mountainous areas. In this situation, the long-span bridge over the reservoir can easily be exposed to non-uniform incoming flows, affecting its wind-resistance performance. This paper presents a study on the aerostatic stability of such a bridge. Wind tunnel tests were first carried out to investigate the wind environment above a mountainous reservoir. The results show that the angle of attack and the wind speed along the bridge axis show obvious non-uniform characteristics, which is related to the inflow direction. When winds come from the south where the river is winding, the angle of attack varies along the span direction significantly. The finite element model for the bridge was established using ANSYS software, and effects of non-uniform wind loads on the aerostatic stability were computed. Non-uniform angle of attack and wind speed are unfavorable to the aerostatic stability of the bridge, especially the former. When the combined action of non-uniform angle of attack and wind speed is considered, the critical wind speed of aerostatic instability is further reduced. Moreover, the aerostatic stability of the bridge is closely related to the dam height.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.69-83
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• 2020

Modelling incompressible, neutrally stratified, barotropic, horizontally homogeneous and steady-state atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is an important aspect in computational wind engineering (CWE) applications. The ABL flow can be viewed as a balance of the horizontal pressure gradient force, the Coriolis force and the turbulent stress divergence. While much research has focused on the increase of the wind velocity with height, the Ekman layer effects, entailing veering - the change of the wind velocity direction with height, are far less concerned in wind engineering. In this paper, a modified k-ε model is introduced for the ABL simulation considering wind veering. The self-sustainable method is discussed in detail including the precursor simulation, main simulation and near-ground physical quantities adjustment. Comparisons are presented among the simulation results, field measurement values and the wind profiles used in the conventional wind tunnel test. The studies show that the modified k-ε model simulation results are consistent with field measurement values. The self-sustainable method is effective to maintain the ABL physical quantities in an empty domain. The wind profiles used in the conventional wind tunnel test have deficiencies in the prediction of upper-level winds. The studies in this paper support future practical super high-rise buildings design in CWE.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.461-487
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• 2015

In recent years, the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) has become a competitive computing technology in comparison with the standard Central Processing Unit (CPU) technology due to reduced unit cost, energy and computing time. This paper describes the derivation and implementation of GPU-based algorithms for the analysis of wind loading uncertainty on high-rise systems, in line with the research field of probability-based wind engineering. The study begins by presenting an application of the GPU technology to basic linear algebra problems to demonstrate advantages and limitations. Subsequently, Monte-Carlo integration and synthetic generation of wind turbulence are examined. Finally, the GPU architecture is used for the dynamic analysis of three high-rise structural systems under uncertain wind loads. In the first example the fragility analysis of a single degree-of-freedom structure is illustrated. Since fragility analysis employs sampling-based Monte Carlo simulation, it is feasible to distribute the evaluation of different random parameters among different GPU threads and to compute the results in parallel. In the second case the fragility analysis is carried out on a continuum structure, i.e., a tall building, in which double integration is required to evaluate the generalized turbulent wind load and the dynamic response in the frequency domain. The third example examines the computation of the generalized coupled wind load and response on a tall building in both along-wind and cross-wind directions. It is concluded that the GPU can perform computational tasks on average 10 times faster than the CPU.