• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제6권1호
• /
• pp.1-22
• /
• 2003

Nowadays balanced cantilever construction plays an essential role as a sophisticated erection technique of bridges due to its economical and ecological advantages. Experience teaches that wind has a great importance with regard to this construction technique, but methods proposed by codes to take wind effects into account are still rather crude and, in most cases, completely lacking. Also research in this field is quite limited and aimed at studying only the longitudinal shear and the torque at the pier base, caused by the mean wind velocity and by the longitudinal turbulence actions over the deck. This paper advances the present solutions by developing a new procedure that takes into account all wind effects both on the deck and on the pier. The proposed model assumes the mean wind velocity as orthogonal to the bridge plane and considers the effects produced by all the three turbulence components and by the vortex shedding. The applications point out the role of each loading component on different bridge configurations and show that disregarding the presence of some effects may imply oversimplified results and relevant underestimations.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• 제26권4호
• /
• pp.435-449
• /
• 2020

To effectively extract the vast wind resource, offshore wind turbines are designed with large rotor and slender tower, which makes them vulnerable to external vibration sources such as wind and wave loads. Substantial research efforts have been devoted to mitigate the unwanted vibrations of offshore wind turbines to ensure their serviceability and safety in the normal working condition. However, most previous studies investigated the vibration control of wind turbines in one direction only, i.e., either the out-of-plane or in-plane direction. In reality, wind turbines inevitably vibrate in both directions when they are subjected to the external excitations. The studies on both the in-plane and out-of-plane vibration control of wind turbines are, however, scarce. In the present study, the NREL 5 MW wind turbine is taken as an example, a detailed three-dimensional (3D) Finite Element (FE) model of the wind turbine is developed in ABAQUS. To simultaneously control the in-plane and out-of-plane vibrations induced by the combined wind and wave loads, another carefully designed (i.e., tuned) spring and dashpot are added to the perpendicular direction of each Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) system that is used to control the vibrations of the tower and blades in one particular direction. With this simple modification, a bi-directional TMD system is formed and the vibrations in both the out-of-plane and in-plane directions are simultaneously suppressed. To examine the control effectiveness, the responses of the wind turbine without control, with separate TMD system and the proposed bi-directional TMD system are calculated and compared. Numerical results show that the bi-directional TMD system can simultaneously control the out-of-plane and in-plane vibrations of the wind turbine without changing too much of the conventional design of the control system. The bi-directional control system therefore could be a cost-effective solution to mitigate the bi-directional vibrations of offshore wind turbines.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제4권3호
• /
• pp.261-276
• /
• 2001

This paper presents an experimental study on the effectiveness of viscous-damping walls in controlling the wind-induced vibrations of a building model. A simple four-story building model, square in plan, was constructed for wind tunnel study. In this paper the description of the model, its instrumentation, and the experimental set-up and methodology are reported. The effectiveness of viscous-damping walls in reducing vibrations was investigated for different fluid levels in the walls, and at varying wind speeds and attack angles. The results show that viscous-damping walls are highly effective in most cases.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제20권3호
• /
• pp.405-422
• /
• 2015

In previous model- and full-scale studies, high-amplitude vertical vibrations of mast-arm traffic signal structures have been shown to be due to vortex shedding, a phenomenon in which alternatingly shed, low-pressure vortices induce oscillating forces onto the mast-arm causing a cross-wind response. When the frequency of vortices being shed from the mast-arm corresponds to the natural frequency of the structure, a resonant condition is created causing long-lasting, high-amplitude vibrations which may lead to the fatigue failure of these structures. Turbulence in the approach flow is known to affect the cohesiveness of vortex shedding. Results from this full-scale investigation indicate that the surrounding terrain conditions, which affect the turbulence intensity of the wind, greatly influence the likelihood of occurrence of long-lasting, high-amplitude vibrations and also impact whether reduced service life due to fatigue is likely to be of concern.

• KIEE International Transactions on Power Engineering
• /
• 제3A권2호
• /
• pp.109-114
• /
• 2003

This paper presents observations made on four-bundled conductor transmission lines concerning the behavior of conductors under the effect of natural winds. To know the wind-induced vibration status and how to control it, wind-induced vibrations have been recorded and analyzed from the real transmission lines. From the field observation and analysis results, subspan oscillation was found to be the main type of vibration. In addition, the data also revealed some common characteristics of the observation sites with high maintenance rates. The results will be used in controlling the subspan oscillations and protecting the conductors.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제23권3호
• /
• pp.231-251
• /
• 2016

This paper presents the experimental results of the wind tunnel tests for three symmetric, rectangular, tall building models on a typical open terrain considering the torsional motion-induced vibrations. The time histories of the wind pressure on these models under different reduced wind speeds and torsional amplitudes are obtained through the multiple point synchronous scanning pressure technique. Thereafter, the characteristics of both the Root Mean Square (RMS) coefficients and the spectra of the base shear/torque in the along-wind, across-wind, and torsional directions, respectively, are discussed. The results show that the RMS coefficients of the base shear/torque vary in the three directions with both the reduced wind speeds and the torsional vibration amplitudes. The variation of the RMS coefficients in the along-wind direction results mainly from the change of the aerodynamic forces, but sometimes from aeroelastic effects induced by torsional vibration. However, the variations of the RMS coefficients in the across-wind and torsional directions are caused by more equal weights of both the aerodynamic forces and the aeroelastic effects. As such, for the typical tall buildings, the modification of the aerodynamic forces in the along-wind, across-wind, and torsional directions, respectively, and the aeroelastic effects in the across-wind and torsional directions should be considered. It is identified that the torsional vibration amplitudes and the reduced wind speeds are two significant parameters for the aerodynamic forces on the structures in the three directions.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제26권2호
• /
• pp.57-68
• /
• 2018

Wind tunnel tests are conducted to investigate wake-induced vibrations of two circular cylinders with a center-to-center spacing of 4 diameters and attack angle varying from $0^{\circ}$ to $20^{\circ}$ for Reynolds numbers between 18,000 and 168,800. Effects of structural damping, Reynolds number, attack angle and reduced velocity on dynamic responses are examined. Results show that wake-induced vortex vibrations of the downstream cylinder occur in a wider range of the reduced velocity and have higher amplitudes in comparison to the vortex-induced vibration of a single circular cylinder. Two types of wake-induced instability phenomena with distinct dynamic characteristics are observed, which may be due to different generation mechanisms. For small attack angles like $5^{\circ}$ and $10^{\circ}$, the instability of the downstream cylinder characterizes a one-degree-of-freedom (1-DOF) oscillation moving in the across-wind direction. For a large attack angle like $20^{\circ}$, the instability characterizes a two-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) oscillation with elliptical trajectories. For an attack angle of $15^{\circ}$, the instability can transform from the 1-DOF pattern to the 2-DOF one with the increase of the Reynolds number. Furthermore, the two instabilities show different sensitivity to the structural damping. The 1-DOF instability can be either completely suppressed or reduced to an unsteady oscillation, while the 2-DOF one is relatively less sensitive to the damping level. Reynolds number has important effects on the wake-induced instabilities.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제20권5호
• /
• pp.683-699
• /
• 2015

Lighting poles and antenna masts are typically high, slender and light structures. Moreover, they are often characterized by distributed eccentricities that make very complex their shape. Experience teaches that this structural type frequently suffers severe damage and even collapses due to wind actions. To understand and interpret the aerodynamic and aeroelastic behavior of lighting poles and antenna masts, this paper presents the results of static and aeroelastic wind tunnel tests carried out on a complex prismatic element representing a segment of the shaft of such structures. Static tests are aimed at determining the aerodynamic coefficients and the Strouhal number of the test element cross-section; the former are used to evaluate the critical conditions for galloping occurrence based on quasi-steady theory; the latter provides the critical conditions for vortex-induced vibrations. Aeroelastic tests are aimed at reproducing the real behavior of the test element and at verifying the validity and reliability of quasi-steady theory. The galloping hysteresis phenomenon is identified through aeroelastic experiments conducted on increasing and decreasing the mean wind velocity.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제4권1호
• /
• pp.19-30
• /
• 2001

This paper concerns computational response predictions when a tuned mass damper is intended to be used for the suppression of vortex shedding induced vibrations of e.g., a bridge deck. A general frequency domain theory is presented and its application is exemplified on a suspension bridge (where vortex shedding vibrations have been observed and where such an installation is a possible solution). Relevant load data are taken from previous wind tunnel tests. In particular, the displacement response statistics of the tuned mass damper as well as the bridge deck are obtained from time domain simulations, showing that after the installation of a TMD peak factors between three and four should be expected.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• 제22권6호
• /
• pp.727-741
• /
• 2018

To mitigate vibrations, tuned mass dampers(TMD) are widely used for long span bridges or high-rise buildings. Due to some durability concerns, such as fluid degradation, oil leakage, etc., the alternative solutions, such as the non-contacted eddy current damping (ECD), are proposed for mechanical devices in small scales. In the present study, a new eddy current damping TMD (ECD-TMD) is proposed and developed for large scale civil infrastructure applications. Starting from parametric study on finite element analysis of the ECD-TMD, the new design is enhanced via using the permanent magnets to eliminate the power need and a combination of a copper plate and a steel plate to improve the energy dissipation efficiency. Additional special design includes installation of two permanent magnets at the same side above the copper plate to easily adjust the gap as well as the damping. In a case study, the proposed ECD-TMD is demonstrated in the application of a steel arch bridge to mitigate the wind-induced vibrations of the flexible hangers. After a brief introduction of the configuration and the installation process for the damper, the mitigation effects are measured for the ambient vibration and forced vibration scenarios. The results show that the damping ratios increase to 3% for the weak axis after the installation of the ECD-TMDs and the maximum vibration amplitudes can be reduced by 60%.