• Wind and Structures
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.75-93
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• 2015

This work is focused on a parametric numerical study of the barrier's bar inclination shelter effect in crosswind scenario. The parametric study combines mesh morphing and design of experiments in automated manner. Radial Basis Functions (RBF) method is used for mesh morphing and Ansys Workbench is used as an automation platform. Wind barrier consists of five bars where each bar angle is parameterized. Design points are defined using the design of experiments (DOE) technique to accurately represent the entire design space. Three-dimensional RANS numerical simulation was utilized with commercial software Ansys Fluent 14.5. In addition to the numerical study, experimental measurement of the aerodynamic forces acting on a vehicle is performed in order to define the critical wind disturbance scenario. The wind barrier optimization method combines morphing, an advanced CFD solver, high performance computing, and process automaters. The goal is to present a parametric aerodynamic simulation methodology for the wind barrier shelter that integrates accuracy and an extended design space in an automated manner. In addition, goal driven optimization is conducted for the most influential parameters for the wind barrier shelter.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.423-439
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• 2012

Three common medium- rise building forms were physically tested to study their overall wind induced structural response. Emphasis was placed on the torsional response and its correlation with other peak responses. A higher correlation was found between the peak responses than between the general fluctuating parts of the signals. This suggests a common mechanism causing the peak event, and that this mechanism is potentially different to the mechanism causing the general load fluctuations. The measurements show that about 80% of the peak overall torsion occur simultaneously with the peak overall along wind drag for some generic building shapes. However, the peak torsional response occurs simultaneously with only 30%-40% of the peak overall drag for the rectangular model. These results emphasise the importance of load combinations for building design, which are often neglected in the design of medium sized rigid buildings for which the along-wind drag is dominant. Current design wind loading standards from around the world were evaluated against the results to establish their adequacy for building design incorporating wind-induced torsion effects. Although torsion is frequently neglected, for some structural systems it may become more important.

• Journal of Wind Energy
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.31-41
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• 2022

The rated power and rotor diameters of wind turbines are significantly increasing for maximized energy production and minimized LCoE, especially for offshore wind turbines. Along with this, the loads and weight of rotor blades are inevitably increasing. Therefore, designers are striving to develop light structures by reducing unnecessary materials for the blades. However, designers have to develop a novel design concept to increase the critical buckling load since lightweight designs compromise the critical buckling load, which is frequently the critical design point for ultra-large wind turbine blades. In this paper, the concept of local reinforcement is introduced as a new structural design concept to increase the buckling load. Moreover, its verification procedure and modeling methodology were studied and verified by application to a 3 MW wind turbine blade.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.553-562
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• 2006

Lateral loading due to wind or earthquake is a major factor that affects the design of high-rise buildings. This paper highlights the problems associated with the seismic design of high-rise buildings in regions of strong wind and moderate seismicity. Seismic response analysis and performance evaluation were conducted for wind-designed concentrically braced steel high-rise buildings in order to check the feasibility of designing them per elastic seismic design criterion (or strength and stiffness solution) in such regions. Review of wind design and pushover analysis results indicated that wind-designed high-rise buildings possess significantly increased elastic seismic capacity due to the overstrength resulting from the wind serviceability criterion. The strength demand-to-capacity study showed that, due to the wind design overstrength, high-rise buildings with a slenderness ratio of larger than four or five can elastically withstand even the maximum considered earthquake (MCE) with the seismic performance level of immediate occupancy under the limited conditions of this study. A step-by-step seismic design procedure per the elastic criterion that is directly usable for practicing design engineers is also recommended.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.143-152
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• 2020

The wind design of buildings is typically based on strength provisions under ultimate loads. This is unlike the ductility-based approach used in seismic design, which allows inelastic actions to take place in the structure under extreme seismic events. This research investigates the application of a similar concept in wind engineering. In seismic design, the elastic forces resulting from an extreme event of high return period are reduced by a load reduction factor chosen by the designer and accordingly a certain ductility capacity needs to be achieved by the structure. Two reasons have triggered the investigation of this ductility-based concept under wind loads. Firstly, there is a trend in the design codes to increase the return period used in wind design approaching the large return period used in seismic design. Secondly, the structure always possesses a certain level of ductility that the wind design does not benefit from. Many technical issues arise when applying a ductility-based approach under wind loads. The use of reduced design loads will lead to the design of a more flexible structure with larger natural periods. While this might be beneficial for seismic response, it is not necessarily the case for the wind response, where increasing the flexibility is expected to increase the fluctuating response. This particular issue is examined by considering a case study of a sixty-five-story high-rise building previously tested at the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory at the University of Western Ontario using a pressure model. A three-dimensional finite element model is developed for the building. The wind pressures from the tested rigid model are applied to the finite element model and a time history dynamic analysis is conducted. The time history variation of the straining actions on various structure elements of the building are evaluated and decomposed into mean, background and fluctuating components. A reduction factor is applied to the fluctuating components and a modified time history response of the straining actions is calculated. The building components are redesigned under this set of reduced straining actions and its fundamental period is then evaluated. A new set of loads is calculated based on the modified period and is compared to the set of loads associated with the original structure. This is followed by non-linear static pushover analysis conducted individually on each shear wall module after redesigning these walls. The ductility demand of shear walls with reduced cross sections is assessed to justify the application of the load reduction factor "R".

• Wind and Structures
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.701-718
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• 2015

The joint distribution of wind speed and wind direction at a bridge site is vital to the estimation of the basic wind speed, and hence to the wind-induced vibration analysis of long-span bridges. Instead of the conventional way relying on the weather stations, this study proposed an alternate approach to obtain the original records of wind speed and the corresponding directions based on field measurement supported by the Structural Health Monitoring System (SHMS). Specifically, SHMS of Sutong Cable-stayed Bridge (SCB) is utilized to study the basic wind speed with directional information. Four anemometers are installed in the SHMS of SCB: upstream and downstream of the main deck center, top of the north and south tower respectively. Using the recorded wind data from SHMS, the joint distribution of wind speed and direction is investigated based on statistical methods, and then the basic wind speeds in 10-year and 100-year recurrence intervals at these four key positions are calculated. Analytical results verify the reliability of the recorded wind data from SHMS, and indicate that the joint probability model for the extreme wind speed at SCB site fits well with the Weibull model. It is shown that the calculated basic wind speed is reduced by considering the influence of wind direction. Compared to the design basic wind speed in the Specification of China, basic wind speed considering the influence of direction or not is much smaller, indicating a high safety coefficient in the design of SCB. The results obtained in this study can provide not only references for further wind-resistance research of SCB, but also improve the understanding of the safety coefficient for wind-resistance design of other engineering structures in the similar area.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.41-57
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• 2018

Concentrated Solar Photovoltaic (CPV) is a promising alternative to conventional solar structures. These solar tracking structures need to be optimized to be competitive against other types of energy production. In particular, the selection of the structural parameters needs to be optimized with regards to the dynamic wind response. This study aims to evaluate the effect of the main structural parameters, as selected in the preliminary design phase, on the wind response and then on the weight of the steel support structure. A parametric study has been performed where parameters influencing dynamic wind response are varied. The study is performed using a semi-deterministic time-domain wind analysis method. Unsteady aerodynamic model is applied for the shape of the CPV structure collector at different configurations in conjunction with a consistent mass-spring-damper model with the corresponding degrees of freedom to describe the dynamic response of the system. It is shown that, unlike the static response analysis, the variation of the peak wind response with many structural parameters is highly nonlinear because of the dynamic wind action. A steel structural optimization process reveals that close attention to structural and site wind parameters could lead to optimal design of CPV steel support structure.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.433-449
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• 2010

Wind tunnel model tests were conducted for a residential apartment block located within the complex terrain of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). The test building is typical of medium-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong. The model study was conducted using modelling techniques and assumptions that are commonly used to predict design wind loads and pressures for buildings sited in regions of significant topography. Results for the building model with and without the surrounding topography were compared to investigate the effects of far-field and near-field topography on wind characteristics at the test building site and wind-induced external pressure coefficients at key locations on the building facade. The study also compared the wind tunnel test results to topographic multipliers and external pressure coefficients determined from nine international design standards. Differences between the external pressure coefficients stipulated in the various standards will be exacerbated when they are combined with the respective topographic multipliers.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.381-388
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• 2019

This paper described the application of Geospatial Analysis in determining mean wind speed, $V_h$ for wind load calculation imposed to electrical transmission tower structural design. The basic wind speed data on available station obtained from Malaysian Meteorology Department is adjusted by considering terrain and ground roughness factor. The correlation between basic wind speed, terrain factor and ground roughness stated in EN-50341-1 is used to obtain the $V_h$ for overhead transmission line elements 50 m above ground. Terrain factor, $k_r$ and ground roughness, $z_0$ in this study are presented by land use types of study area. Wind load is then calculated by using equation stated in design code EN-50341-1 by using the adjusted mean wind speed. Scatter plots of $V_h$ for different $k_r$and $z_0$ are presented in this paper to see the effect of these parameters to the value of $V_h$. Geospatial analysis is used to represent the model of $V_h$. This model can be used to determine possible area that will subject to wind load which severe to the stability of transmission tower and transmission line.

• Water Engineering Research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2003

A mathematical model was developed to simulate the performance of a prototype wind-powered reverse osmosis desalination system. The model consists of two sub-models operated in a series. The first sub-model is the wind-energy conversion sub-model, which has wind energy and feed water as its input and pressurized feed water as its output. The second sub-model is a reverse osmosis (RO) process sub-model, with pressurized feed water as its input and the flow and salinity of the product water or permeate as its output. Model coefficients were determined based on field experiments of a prototype wind powered RO desalination system of the University of Hawaii, from June to December 2001. The mathematical model developed by this study predicts the performance of wind-powered RO desalination systems under different design conditions. The system optimization is achieved using a linear programming approach. Based on the results of system optimization, a design guide is prepared, which can be used by both manufacturer and end-user of the wind-driven reverse osmosis system.