• Wind and Structures
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2000

The cruciform shaped mast over 47 storey, Telecom Corporate Building in Melbourne, Australia rises to a height of approximately 25 m above the roof level. As the members are subjected to very high fluctuating loads under wind, the design was mainly governed by wind-induced fatigue. A detailed fatigue analysis was carried out according to the requirements of the Australian Steel Structures Code, AS4100. The wind-induced fatigue analysis procedure is described in the paper. The fatigue design of this mast is used as an example to illustrate some potential problems of relevant specifications in AS4100 and to outline some of the more important parameters in the fatigue analysis.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.9-20
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• 2018

Due to integrated stochastic wind and wave loads, the supporting platform of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine (FOWT) has to bear six Degrees of Freedom (DOF) motion, which makes the random cyclic loads acting on the structural components, for instance the tower base, more complicated than those on bottom-fixed or land-based wind turbines. These cyclic loads may cause unexpected fatigue damages on a FOWT. This paper presents a study on short-term fatigue damage at the tower base of a 5 MW FOWT with a spar-type platform. Fully coupled time-domain simulations code FAST is used and realistic environment conditions are considered to obtain the loads and structural stresses at the tower base. Then the cumulative fatigue damage is calculated based on rainflow counting method and Miner's rule. Moreover, the effects of the simulation length, the wind-wave misalignment, the wind-only condition and the wave-only condition on the fatigue damage are investigated. It is found that the wind and wave induced loads affect the tower base's axial stress separately and in a decoupled way, and the wave-induced fatigue damage is greater than that induced by the wind loads. Under the environment conditions with rated wind speed, the tower base experiences the highest fatigue damage when the joint probability of the wind and wave is included in the calculation. Moreover, it is also found that 1 h simulation length is sufficient to give an appropriate fatigue damage estimated life for FOWT.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.237-259
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• 2014

Wind-induced failure around screwed connections has been documented in roof and wall cladding systems made with steel sheet cold-formed panels during high wind events. Previous research has found that low cycle fatigue caused by stress concentration and fluctuating wind loads is responsible for most such failures. A dynamic load protocol was employed in this work to represent fatigue under wind effects. A finite element model and fatigue criteria were implemented and compared with laboratory experiments in order to predict the fatigue failure associated with fluctuating wind loads. Results are used to develop an analytical model which can be employed for the fatigue analysis of steel cold-formed cladding systems. Existing three dimensional fatigue criteria are implemented and correlated with fatigue damage observed on steel claddings. Parametric studies are used to formulate suitable yet simple fatigue criteria. Fatigue failure is predicted in different configurations of loads, types of connections, and thicknesses of steel folded plate cladding. The analytical model, which correlated with experimental results reported in a companion paper, was validated for the fatigue life prediction and failure mechanism of different connection types and thicknesses of cold-formed steel cladding.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.2
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• pp.197-215
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• 2021

Under a severe environment of multiple hazards such as earthquakes and winds, the life-cycle performance of engineering structures may inevitably be deteriorated due to the fatigue effect caused by long-term exposure to wind loads, which would further increase the structural vulnerability to earthquakes. This paper presents a framework for evaluating the lifetime structural seismic performance under the effect of wind-induced fatigue considering different sources of uncertainties. The seismic behavior of a high-rise steel-concrete composite frame with buckling-restrained braces (FBRB) during its service life is systematically investigated using the proposed approach. Recorded field data for the wind hazard of Fuzhou, Fujian Province of China from Jan. 1, 1980 to Mar. 31, 2019 is collected, based on which the distribution of wind velocity is constructed by the Gumbel model after comparisons. The OpenSees platform is employed to establish the numerical model of the FBRB and conduct subsequent numerical computations. Allowed for the uncertainties caused by the wind generation and structural modeling, the final annual fatigue damage takes the average of 50 groups of simulations. The lifetime structural performance assessments, including static pushover analyses, nonlinear dynamic time history analyses and fragility analyses, are conducted on the time-dependent finite element (FE) models which are modified in lines with the material deterioration models. The results indicate that the structural performance tends to degrade over time under the effect of fatigue, while the influencing degree of fatigue varies with the duration time of fatigue process and seismic intensity. The impact of wind-induced fatigue on structural responses and fragilities are explicitly quantified and discussed in details.

• Journal of Advanced Research in Ocean Engineering
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.239-251
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• 2015

In this study, a spectral fatigue analysis was performed for the topside structure of an offshore floating vessel. The topside structure was idealized using beam elements in the SACS program. The fatigue analysis was carried out considering the wave and wind loads separately. For the wave-induced fatigue damage calculation, motion RAOs calculated from a direct wave load analysis and regular waves with different periods and unit wave heights were utilized. Then, the member end force transfer functions were generated covering all the loading conditions. Stress response transfer functions at each joint were produced using the specified SCFs and member end force transfer functions. fatigue damages were calculated using the obtained stress ranges, S-N curve, wave spectrum, heading probability of each loading condition, and their corresponding occurrences in the wave scatter diagrams. For the wind induced fatigue damage calculation, a dynamic wind spectral fatigue analysis was performed. First, a dynamic natural frequency analysis was performed to generate the structural dynamic characteristics, including the eigenvalues (natural frequencies), eigenvectors (mode shapes), and mass matrix. To adequately represent the dynamic characteristic of the structure, the number of modes was appropriately determined in the lateral direction. Second, a wind spectral fatigue analysis was performed using the mode shapes and mass data obtained from the previous results. In this analysis, the Weibull distribution of the wind speed occurrence, occurrence probability in each direction, damping coefficient, S-N curves, and SCF of each joint were defined and used. In particular, the wind fatigue damages were calculated under the assumption that the stress ranges followed a Rayleigh distribution. The total fatigue damages were calculated from the combination with wind and wave fatigue damages according to the DNV rule.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.225-240
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• 2013

The wind-induced vibrations of the mast arm of cantilever traffic signal structures can lead to the fatigue failure of these structures. Wind tunnel tests were conducted on an aeroelastic model of this type of structure. Results of these experiments indicated that when the signals have backplates, vortex shedding causes large-amplitude vibrations that could lead to fatigue failure. Vibrations caused by galloping were only observed for one particular angle of attack with the signals having backplates. No evidence for galloping, previously thought to be the dominant cause of fatigue failures in these structures, was observed.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.217-227
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• 2020

Based on translation models, both Gaussian and non-Gaussian wind fields are generated using spectral representation method for investigating the influence of non-Gaussian characteristics and directivity effect of wind load on fatigue damage of wind turbine. Using the blade aerodynamic model and multi-body dynamics, dynamic responses are calculated. Using linear damage accumulation theory and linear crack propagation theory, crack initiation life and crack propagation life are discussed with consideration of the joint probability density distribution of the wind direction and mean wind speed in detail. The result shows that non-Gaussian characteristics of wind load have less influence on fatigue life of wind turbine in the area with smaller annual mean wind speeds. Whereas, the influence becomes significant with the increase of the annual mean wind speed. When the annual mean wind speeds are 7 m/s and 9 m/s at hub height of 90 m, the crack initiation lives under softening non-Gaussian wind decrease by 10% compared with Gaussian wind fields or at higher hub height. The study indicates that the consideration of the influence of softening non-Gaussian characteristics of wind inflows can significantly decrease the fatigue life, and, if neglected, it can result in non-conservative fatigue life estimates for the areas with higher annual mean wind speeds.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.255-270
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• 2006

Several analytical procedures available in literature, for the evaluation of wind induced fatigue damage of structures, either assume the wide band random stress variations as narrow band random process or use correction factors along with narrow band assumption. This paper compares the correction factors obtained using the Rainflow Cycle (RFC) counting of the measured stress time histories on a lamp mast and a lattice tower, with those evaluated using different frequency domain methods available in literature. A Bi-modal spectral method has been formulated by idealising the single spectral moment method into two modes of background and resonant components, as considered in the gust response factor, for the evaluation of fatigue of slender structures subjected to "along-wind vibrations". A closed form approximation for the effective frequency of the background component has been developed. The simplicity and the accuracy of the new method have been illustrated through a case study by simulating stress time histories at the base of an urban light pole for different mean wind speeds. The correction factors obtained by the Bi-modal spectral method have been compared with those obtained from the simulated stress time histories using RFC counting method. The developed Bi-modal method is observed to be a simple and easy to use alternative to detailed time and frequency domain fatigue analyses without considerable computational and experimental efforts.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.163-176
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• 2001

Two 12 m high tubular steel lighting columns have been instrumented to determine the wind-induced fatigue loading experienced by such columns. Each column supported a single luminaire mounted on a 0.5 m long bracket. One column was planted in soil, and the other bolted through a welded baseplate to a substantial concrete base. The columns were strain gauged just above the shoulder weld which connected the main shaft to the larger base tube. Forced vibration tests were undertaken to determine the natural frequencies and damping of the columns. Extensive recordings were made of response to winds with speeds from 4 m/s to 17 m/s. Selected records were analysed to obtain stress cycle counts and fatigue lives. Mean drag coefficients were also derived from the strain data to investigate experimentally the effect of Reynolds Number.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.21-41
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• 2013

Wind-induced vibrations of mast arms of cantilever traffic signal structures can lead to fatigue failure. Two such structures were instrumented each with a sonic anemometer and a camera that records the motions of the tip of the arm. It was observed throughout this experiment that large amplitude vertical vibrations of mast arms with signals with backplates occur for the most part at low wind speed ranges, between 2 to 7 m/s, and as the wind speed increases the amplitude of the vertical vibrations decreases. The results of these experiments contradict the generally accepted belief that vortex shedding does not cause significant vibrations of mast arms that could lead to fatigue failure, which have been attributed to galloping in the past. Two damping devices were tested with mixed results.