• Wind and Structures
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.251-268
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• 2005

This paper describes the work of the International Association for Wind Engineering Working Group E -Dynamic Response, one of the International Codification Working Groups set up at the Tenth International Conference on Wind Engineering in Copenhagen. Comparisons of gust loading factors and wind-induced responses of major codes and standards are first reviewed, and recent new proposals on 3-D gust loading factor techniques are introduced. Then, the combined effects of along-wind, crosswind and torsional wind load components are discussed, as well as the dynamic characteristics of buildings. Finally, the mathematical forms of along-wind velocity spectra for along-wind response calculation and codification of acceleration criteria are discussed.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.425-439
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• 2009

The expediency of revising universal rules for the combination of gravity and lateral actions of wind force-resisting steel structures recommended by the Standards EN 1990 and ASCE/SEI 7-05 is discussed. Extreme wind forces, gravity actions and their combinations for the limit state design of structures are considered. The effect of statistical uncertainties of extreme wind pressure and steel yield strength on the structural safety of beam-column joints of wind force-resisting multistory steel frames designed by the partial factor design (PFD) and the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) methods is demonstrated. The limit state criterion and the performance process of steel frame joints are presented and considered. Their long-term survival probability analysis is based on the unsophisticated method of transformed conditional probabilities. A numerical example illustrates some discrepancies in international design standards and the necessity to revise the rule of universal combinations of loads in wind and structural engineering.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.219-229
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• 2020

Net pressures on roofs and walls of buildings are dependent on the internal and external pressure fluctuations. The variation of internal and external pressures are influenced by the size and location of the openings. The correlation of external and internal pressure influences the net pressures acting on cladding on different parts of the roof and walls. The peak internal and peak external pressures do not occur simultaneously, therefore, a reduction can be applied to the peak internal and external pressures to obtain a peak net pressure for cladding design. A 1:200 scale wind tunnel model study was conducted to determine the correlations of external and internal pressures and effective reduction to net pressures (i.e., net pressure factors, F_C) for roof and wall cladding. The results show that external and internal pressures on the windward roof and wall edges are well correlated. The largest ${\mathcal{C}}_{{\check{p},net}$, highest correlation coefficient and the highest F_C are obtained for different wind directions within 90° ≤ θ ≤ 135°, where the large openings are on the windward wall. The study also gives net pressure factors F_C for areas on the roof and wall cladding for nominally sealed buildings and the buildings with a large windward wall opening. These factors indicate that a 5% to 10% reduction to the action combination factor, K_C specified in AS/NZS 1170.2(2011) is possible for some critical design scenarios.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.271-281
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• 2014

Fluctuating wind conditions necessitate the use of a variable speed wind turbine (VSWT) with a AC/DC/AC converter scheme in order to harvest the maximum power from the wind and to decouple the synchronous generator voltage and frequency from the grid voltage and frequency. In this paper, a combination of a three phase diode bridge rectifier (DBR) and a modified topology of the diode clamped multilevel inverter (DCMLI) has been considered as an AC/DC/AC converter. A control strategy has been proposed for the DCMLI to achieve the objective of grid interface of a wind power system together with local load compensation. A novel fixed frequency current control method is proposed for the DCMLI based on the level shifted multi carrier PWM for achieving the required control objectives with equal and uniform switching frequency operation for better control and thermal management with the modified DCMLI. The condition of the controller gain is derived to ensure the operation of the DCMLI at the fixed frequency of the carrier. The converter current injected into the distribution grid is controlled in accordance with the wind power availability. In addition, load compensation is performed as an added facility in order to free the source currents being fed from the grid of harmonic distortion, unbalance and a low power factor even though the load may be unbalanced, non-linear and of a poor power factor. The results are validated using PSCAD/EMTDC simulation studies.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.343-356
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• 2005

Overhead sign support structures number in the tens of thousands throughout the trunk-line roadways in the United States. A recent two-phase study sponsored by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program resulted in the most significant changes to the AASHTO design specifications for sign support structures to date. The driving factor for these substantial changes was fatigue related cracks and some recent failures. This paper presents the method and results of a subsequent study sponsored by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to develop a relative performance-based procedure to rank overhead sign support structures around the United States based on a linear combination of their expected fatigue life and an approximate measure of cost. This was accomplished by coupling a random vibrations approach with six degree-of-freedom linear dynamic models for fatigue life estimation. Approximate cost was modeled as the product of the steel weight and a constructability factor. An objective function was developed and used to rank selected steel sign support structures from around the country with the goal of maximizing the objective function. Although a purely relative approach, the ranking procedure was found to be efficient and provided the decision support necessary to MDOT.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.217-224
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• 1999

A semi-stochastic process model of reliability was established for hyperbolic cooling towers subjected to combined loadings of wind force, self-weight, temperature loading. Effect of the soil-structure interaction on reliability was evaluated. By involving the gust factor, an equivalent static scheme was employed to convert the dynamic model to static model. The TR combination rule was used to consider relations between load responses. An analysis example was made on the 90M cooling tower of Maoming, Guangdong of China. Numerical results show that the design not including interaction turns to be conservative.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.139-150
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• 2017

The structural strain plays a significant role in structural condition assessment of in-service bridges in terms of structural bearing capacity, structural reliability level and entire safety redundancy. Therefore, it has been one of the most important parameters concerned by researchers and engineers engaged in structural health monitoring (SHM) practices. In this paper, an SHM system instrumented on the Jiubao Bridge located in Hangzhou, China is firstly introduced. This system involves nine subsystems and has been continuously operated for five years since 2012. As part of the SHM system, a total of 166 fiber Bragg grating (FBG) strain sensors are installed on the bridge to measure the dynamic strain responses of key structural components. Based on the strain monitoring data acquired in recent two years, the strain-based structural condition assessment of the Jiubao Bridge is carried out. The wavelet multi-resolution algorithm is applied to separate the temperature effect from the raw strain data. The obtained strain data under the normal traffic and wind condition and under the typhoon condition are examined for structural safety evaluation. The structural condition rating of the bridge in accordance with the AASHTO specification for condition evaluation and load and resistance factor rating of highway bridges is performed by use of the processed strain data in combination with finite element analysis. The analysis framework presented in this study can be used as a reference for facilitating the assessment, inspection and maintenance activities of in-service bridges instrumented with long-term SHM system.