• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.253-265
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• 2014

The platform and floating structure of spar type offshore wind turbine systems should be designed in order for the 6-DOF motions to be minimized, considering diverse loading environments such as the ocean wave, wind, and current conditions. The objective of this study is to optimally design the platform and substructure of a 3MW spar type wind turbine system with the maximum postural stability in 6-DOF motions as well as the minimum material cost. Therefore, design variables of the platform and substructure were first determined and then optimized by a hydrodynamic analysis. For the hydrodynamic analysis, the body weight of the system was considered, and the ocean wave conditions were quantified to the wave forces using the Morison's equation. Moreover, the minimal number of computation analysis models was generated by the Design of Experiments (DOE), and the design variables of the platform and substructure were finally optimized by using a genetic algorithm with a neural network approximation.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.349-368
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• 2016

A preconditioning technique is presented for a simultaneous solution to wind-membrane interaction. In the simultaneous equations, a linear elastic model was employed to deal with the fluid-structure data transfer at the interface. A Lagrange multiplier was introduced to impose the specified boundary conditions at the interface and strongly coupled simultaneous equations are derived after space and time discretization. An initial linear elastic model preconditioner and modified one were derived by treating the linearized elastic model equation as a saddle point problem, respectively. Accordingly, initial and modified fluid-structure interaction (FSI) preconditioner for the simultaneous equations were derived based on the initial and modified linear elastic model preconditioners, respectively. Wind-membrane interaction analysis by the proposed preconditioners, for two and three dimensional membranous structures respectively, was performed. Comparison was made between the performance of initial and modified preconditioners by comparing parameters such as iteration numbers, relative residuals and convergence in FSI computation. The results show that the proposed preconditioning technique greatly improves calculation accuracy and efficiency. The priority of the modified FSI preconditioner is verified. The proposed preconditioning technique provides an efficient solution procedure and paves the way for practical application of simultaneous solution for wind-structure interaction computation.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.177-193
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• 2017

The accelerated development of new materials, technologies and construction processes, in parallel with advances in computational algorithms and ever growing computational power, is leading to more daring and innovative architectural and structural designs. The search for non-regular building shapes and slender structures, as alternative to the traditional architectural forms that have been prevailing in the building sector, poses important engineering challenges in the assessment of the strength and mechanical stability of non-conventional structures and systems, namely against highly variable actions as wind and seismic forces. In case of complex structures, laboratory experiments are a widely used methodology for strength assessment and loading characterization. Nevertheless, powerful numerical tools providing reliable results are also available today and able to compete with the experimental approach. In this paper the wind action on a free-form complex thin shell is investigated through 3D-CFD simulation in terms of the pressure coefficients and global forces generated. All the modelling aspects and calibrating process are described. The results obtained showed that the CFD technique is effective in the study of the wind effects on complex-shaped structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.653-664
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• 2014

Wind fragility analysis provides a quantitative instrument for delineating the safety performance of civil structures under hazardous wind loading conditions such as cyclones and tornados. It has attracted and would be expected to continue to attract intensive research spotlight particularly in the nowadays worldwide context of adapting to the changing climate. One of the challenges encumbering efficacious assessment of the safety performance of existing civil structures is the possible incompleteness of the structural appraisal data. Addressing the issue of the data missingness, the study presented in this paper forms a first attempt to investigate the feasibility of using the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm and Bayesian techniques to predict the wind fragilities of existing civil structures. Numerical examples of typical linear or hysteretic shear frames are introduced with the wind loads derived from a widely used power spectral density function. Specifically, the application of the maximum a posteriori estimates of the distribution parameters for the story stiffness is examined, and a surrogate model is developed and applied to facilitate the nonlinear response computation when studying the fragilities of the hysteretic shear frame involved.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.299-315
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• 2013

Numerical research on four typical configurations of noise mitigation structures and their characteristics of wind loads are reported in this paper. The turbulence model as well the model parameters, the modeling of the equilibrium atmospheric boundary layer, the mesh discretization etc., were carefully considered in the numerical model to improve the numerical accuracy. Also a numerical validation of one configuration with the wind tunnel test data was made. Through detailed analyses of the wind load characteristics with the inclined part and the wind incidence angle, it was found that the addition of an inclined part to a noise mitigation structure at-grade would affect the mean nett pressure coefficients on the vertical part, and that the extent of this effect depends on the length of the inclined part itself. The magnitudes of the mean nett pressure coefficients for both the vertical part and the inclined part of noise mitigation structure at-grade tended to increase with length of inclined part. Finally, a comparison with the wind load code British/European Standard BS EN 1991-1-4:2005 was made and the envelope of the mean nett pressure coefficients of the noise mitigation structures was given for design purposes. The current research should be helpful to improve current wind codes by providing more reasonable wind pressure coefficients for different configurations of noise mitigation structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.207-230
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• 2012

Nowadays CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer) became widely used materials for the strengthening and retrofitting of structures. Many experimental and analytical studies are encountered at literature about strengthening beams by using this kind of materials against static loads and cyclic loads such as earthquake or wind loading for investigating their behavior. But authors did not found any study about strengthening of RC beams by using CFRP against low velocity impact and investigating their behavior. For these reasons an experimental study is conducted on totally ten strengthened RC beams. Impact loading is applied on to specimens by using an impact loading system that is designed by authors. Investigated parameters were concrete compression strength and drop height. Two different sets of specimens with different concrete compression strength tested under the impact loading that are applied by dropping constant weight hammer from five different heights. The acceleration arises from the impact loading is measured against time. The change of velocity, displacement and energy are calculated for all specimens. The failure modes of the specimens with normal and high concrete compression strength are observed under the loading of constant weight impact hammer that are dropped from different heights. Impact behaviors of beams are positively affected from the strengthening with CFRP. Measured accelerations, the number of drops up to failure and dissipated energy are increased. Finite element analysis that are made by using ABAQUS software is used for the simulation of experiments, and model gave compatible results with experiments.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.17-31
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• 2021

Post-earthquake fire is a common disaster which causes serious safety issues to infrastructures. This study aims to investigate the residual loading capacities of circular concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns under post-earthquake fire experimentally and numerically. The experimental programme contains two loading steps - pre-damage cyclic loading at room temperature and transient state tests with constant compression loads. Three finite element models are developed and validated against the test results. Upon validation, a total of 48 numerical results were generated in the parametric study to investigate the effects of thickness and strengths of steel tube, axial compression ratio and damage degree on the fire resistance of circular CFST columns. Based on the analysis on experimental and numerical results, the loading mechanism of circular CFST columns is discussed. A design method is proposed for the prediction of fire resistance time under different seismic pre-damage and compression loads. The predictions by the new method is compared with the newly generated experimental and numerical results and is found to be accurate and consistent with the mean value close to the unity and a coefficient of variation around 1%.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.465-483
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• 2016

This study aims to enhance the understanding of the surface pressure distribution around rectangular bodies, by considering aspects such as the suction pressure at the leading edge on the top and side faces when the body aspect ratio and wind direction are changed. We carried out wind tunnel measurements and numerical simulations of flow around a series of rectangular bodies (a cube and two rectangular bodies) that were placed in a deep turbulent boundary layer. Based on a modern numerical platform, the Navier-Stokes equations with the typical two-equation model (i.e., the standard $k-{\varepsilon}$ model) were solved, and the results were compared with the wind tunnel measurement data. Regarding the turbulence model, the results of the $k-{\varepsilon}$ model are in overall agreement with the experimental results, including the existing data. However, because of the blockage effects in the computational domain, the pressure recovery region is underpredicted compared to the experimental data. In addition, the $k-{\varepsilon}$ model sometimes will fail to capture the exact flow features. The primary emphasis in this study is on the flow characteristics around rectangular bodies with various aspect ratios and approaching wind directions. The aspect ratio and wind direction influence the type of wake that is generated and ultimately the structural loading and pressure, and in particular, the structural excitation. The results show that the surface pressure variation is highly dependent upon the approaching wind direction, especially on the top and side faces of the cube. In addition, the transverse width has a substantial effect on the variations in surface pressure around the bodies, while the longitudinal length has less influence compared to the transverse width.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.289-309
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• 2014

A rotor blade is an important device that converts kinetic energy of wind into mechanical energy. Rotor blades affect the power performance, energy conversion efficiency, and loading and dynamic stability of wind turbines. Therefore, considering the characteristics of a wind turbine system is important for achieving optimal blade design. This study examined the general blade design procedure for a wind turbine system and aero-structure design results for a 2-MW class wind turbine blade (KR40.1b). As suggested above, a rotor blade cannot be designed independently, because its ultimate and fatigue loads are highly dependent on system operating conditions. Thus, a reference 2-MW wind turbine system was also developed for the system integrated load calculations. All calculations were performed in accordance with IEC 61400-1 and the KR guidelines for wind turbines.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.495-510
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• 2007

Wind pressure data have been collected on the tiled roof of a full-scale test house at Silsoe in the UK. The tiled roof was of conventional UK construction with a batten-space and bitumen-felt underlay beneath the interlocking concrete tiles. Pressures were monitored on the outer surface of selected tiles, at several locations within the batten-space, and beneath the underlay. Data were collected both with and without ventilator tiles installed on the roof. Little information appears to exist on the share of wind load between tiles and underlays which creates uncertainty in the design of both components. The present study has found that for the critical design case of maximum uplifts it would be appropriate to assign 85% of the net roof load to the tiles and 15% to the underlay when an internal pressure coefficient of -0.3 is used, and to assign 60% to the tiles and 50% to the underlay when an internal pressure coefficient of +0.2 is assumed (an element of design conservatism is inherent in the apparent 110% net loading indicated by the latter pair of percentage values). These findings indicate that compared with loads implied by BS 6399-2, UK design loads for underlay are currently conservative by 25% whilst tile loads are unconservative by around 20% in ridge and general regions and by around 45% in edge regions on average over roof slopes of $15^{\circ}-60^{\circ}$.