• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.1157-1162
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• 2009

The aerodynamic torque and power caused by the interaction between the wind and blade of wind turbine are highly nonlinear. For this reason, the overall dynamic behaviors of wind turbine have nonlinear characteristics. The aerodynamic nonlinearity also affects properties of torque control for wind turbine. In this paper, the nonlinear aerodynamic property according to the wind speed below rated power and its effects on the torque control system are investigated. Nonlinear parameter representing change of aerodynamic torque with respect to rotor speed is obtained by linearization technique. Effects of this aerodynamic nonlinear parameter on the closed-loop torque system with PI controller for an 1.5 MW wind turbine are presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.747-754
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• 2012

A solar power generator is usually installed outdoors and it is exposed to extreme environments such as snow weight and wind loading. The solar tracker structure should be designed to have sufficient stiffness and strength against such loads. In this paper, simulations are performed by varying the parameters such as wind directions, wind speeds and the pose of the solar panel to evaluate the effects of extreme wind on solar tracker. As the effects of wind load, maximum displacement and maximum equivalent stress in the solar tracker are calculated. Finite element stress analysis is carried out by using the pressure distribution that is obtained by prior wind load analysis due to the flow around the solar tracker. The stress analysis of solar tracker to check and/or improve structural robustness provides some useful instructions for structural design or revision of solar tracker.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.77-109
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• 1998

An evaluation and comparison of seven of the world's major building codes and standards is conducted in this study, with specific discussion of their estimations of the alongwind, acrosswind, and torsional response, where applicable, for a given building. The codes and standards highlighted by this study are those of the United States, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, China and Europe. In addition, the responses predicted by using the measured power spectra of the alongwind, acrosswind and torsional responses for several building shapes tested in a wind tunnel are presented and a comparison between the response predicted by wind tunnel data and that estimated by some of the standards is conducted. This study serves not only as a comparison of the response estimates by international codes and standards, but also introduces a new set of wind tunnel data for validation of wind tunnel-based empirical expressions.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.169-177
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• 2021

This study investigates the effects of blade configuration and solidity of Darrieus wind turbine on the starting torque characteristics. Generally, the configuration of Darrieus wind turbine is divided into Troposkien, parabola, Catenary, Sandia, modified-parabola and straight types. A numerical analysis has been carried out using Multiple Stream Tube (MST) method to investigate the effect of blade configuration and solidity of Darrieus wind turbine on the starting torque under the initial low range of rotational speed. The simulation results show that the starting torque of Darrieus wind turbine varies considerably depending on the blade configuration. The initial starting torque was larger with Troposkien, Parabola, Catenary, and Sandia configurations than with modified parabola or straight types. The increase in solidity with increasing number of blades raised the starting torque and improved the dynamic stability during the initial operational speed of Darrieus wind turbine. Additionally, these torque results represent basic data for fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulation of the steady-dynamic operation of the turbine.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.183-202
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• 2015

Experiments on two-dimensional rectangular prisms with various side ratios (B/D=2, 3, and 4, where B is the along-wind dimension, and D is the across-wind dimension) and rounded corners (R/D=0%, 5%, 10%, and 15%, where R is the corner radius) are reported in this study. The tests were conducted in low-turbulence uniform flow to measure the wind pressures on the surfaces of 12 models for Reynolds numbers ranging from $1.1{\times}10^5$ to $6.8{\times}10^5$. The aerodynamic force coefficients were obtained by integrating the wind pressure coefficients around the model surface. Experimental results of wind pressure distributions, aerodynamic force coefficients, and Strouhal numbers are presented for the 12 models. The mechanisms of the Reynolds number effects are revealed by analyzing the variations of wind pressure distributions. The sensitivity of aerodynamic behavior to the Reynolds number increases with increasing side ratio or rounded corner ratio for rectangular prisms. In addition, the variations of the mean pressure distributions and the pressure correlations on the side surfaces of rectangular prisms with the rounded corner ratio are analyzed at $Re=3.4{\times}10^5$.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.449-459
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• 2015

Effects of buildings and topography on observation environment of surface wind in central regions of urban areas are investigated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. In order to reflect the characteristics of buildings and topography in urban areas, geographic information system (GIS) data are used to construct surface boundary input data. For each observation station, 16 cases with different inflow directions are considered to evaluate effects of buildings and topography on wind speed and direction around the observation station. The results show that flow patterns are very complicated due to the buildings and topography. The simulated wind speed and direction at the location of each observation station are compared with those of inflow. As a whole, wind speed at observation stations decreases due to the drag effect of buildings. The decrease rate of wind speed is strongly related with total volume of buildings which are located in the upwind direction. It is concluded that the CFD model is a very useful tool to evaluate location of observation station suitability. And it is expected to help produce wind observation data that represent local scale excluding the effects of buildings and topography in urban areas.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.155-180
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• 2014

The safety of road vehicles on the ground in crosswind has been investigated for many years. One of the most important fundamentals in the safety analysis is aerodynamic characteristics of a vehicle in crosswind. The most common way to study the aerodynamic characteristics of a vehicle in crosswind is wind tunnel tests to measure the aerodynamic coefficients and/or pressure coefficients of the vehicle. Due to the complexity of wind tunnel test equipment and procedure, the features of flow field around the vehicle are seldom explored in a wind tunnel, particularly for the vehicle moving on the ground. As a complementary to wind tunnel tests, the numerical method using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be employed as an effective tool to explore the aerodynamic characteristics of as well as flow features around the vehicle. This study explores crosswind effects on a high-sided lorry on the ground with and without movement through CFD simulations together with wind tunnel tests. Firstly, the aerodynamic forces on a stationary lorry model are measured in a wind tunnel, and the results are compared with the previous measurement results. The CFD with unsteady RANS method is then employed to simulate wind flow around and wind pressures on the stationary lorry. The numerical aerodynamic forces are compared with the wind tunnel test results. Furthermore, the same CFD method is extended to investigate the moving vehicle on the ground in crosswind. The results show that the CFD results match with wind tunnel test results and the current way using aerodynamic coefficients from a stationary vehicle in crosswind is acceptable. The CFD simulation can provide more insights on flow field and pressure distribution which are difficult to be obtained by wind tunnel tests.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.153-178
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• 2008

Based on the empirical formulas for power spectra of generalized modal forces and local fluctuating wind forces in across-wind and torsional directions, the wind-induced lateral-torsional coupled response analysis of a representative rectangular tall building was conducted by setting various parameters such as eccentricities in centers of mass and/or rigidity and considering different torsional to lateral stiffness ratios. The eccentricity effects on the lateral-torsional coupled responses of the tall building were studied comprehensively by structural dynamic analysis. Extensive computational results indicated that the torsional responses at the geometric center of the building may be significantly affected by the eccentricities in the centers of mass and/or rigidity. Covariance responses were found to be in the same order of magnitude as the along-wind or across-wind responses in many eccentricity cases, suggesting that the lateral-torsional coupled effects on the overall wind-induced responses can not be neglected for such situations. The calculated results also demonstrated that the torsional motion contributed significantly to the total responses of rectangular tall buildings with mass and/or rigidity eccentricities. It was shown through this study that the framework presented in this paper provides a useful tool to evaluate the wind-induced lateral-torsional coupled responses of rectangular buildings, which will enable structural engineers in the preliminary design stages to assess the serviceability of tall buildings, potential structural vibration problems and the need for a detailed wind tunnel test.

• 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.14 no.1
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• pp.15-34
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• 2011

Three wind-tunnel simulations of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flow in suburban country exposure were generated for length scale factors 1:400, 1:250 and 1:220 to investigate scale effects in wind-tunnel simulations of the suburban ABL, to address recommended wind characteristics for suburban exposures reported in international standards, and to test redesigned experimental hardware. Investigated parameters are mean velocity, turbulence intensity, turbulent Reynolds shear stress, integral length scale of turbulence and power spectral density of velocity fluctuations. Experimental results indicate it is possible to reproduce suburban natural winds in the wind tunnel at different length scales without significant influence of the simulation length scale on airflow characteristics. However, in the wind tunnel it was not possible to reproduce two characteristic phenomena observed in full-scale: dependence of integral length scales on reference wind velocity and a linear increase in integral length scales with height. Furthermore, in international standards there is a considerable scatter of recommended values for suburban wind characteristics. In particular, recommended integral length scales in ESDU 85020 (1985) are significantly larger than in other international standards. Truncated vortex generators applied in this study proved to be successful in part-depth suburban ABL wind-tunnel simulation that yield a novel methodology in studies on wind effects on structures and air pollution dispersion.