• Wind and Structures
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.59-74
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• 2015

A coupled model system for Wind Resource Assessment (WRA) was studied. Using a mesoscale meteorological model, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, global-scale data were downscaled to the inner nested grid scale (typically a few kilometers), and then through the coupling Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) mode, FLUENT. High-resolution results (50 m in the horizontal direction; 10 m in the vertical direction below 150 m) of the wind speed distribution data and ultimately refined wind farm information, were obtained. The refined WRF/FLUENT system was then applied to assess the wind resource over complex terrain in the northern Poyang Lake region. The results showed that the approach is viable for the assessment of wind energy.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.685-701
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• 2016

Downbursts are of great harm to transmission lines and many towers can even be destroyed. The downburst wind field model by Chen and Letchford was applied, and the wind loads of two typical transmission towers in inland areas and littoral areas were calculated separately. Spatial finite element models of the transmission towers were established by elastic beam and link elements. The wind loads as well as the dead loads of conductors and insulators were simplified and applied on the suspension points by concentrated form. Structural analysis on two typical transmission towers under normal wind and downburst was completed. The bearing characteristics and the failure modes of the transmission towers under downburst were determined. The failure state of tower members can be judged by the calculated stress ratios. It shows that stress states of the tower members were mainly controlled by 45 degree wind load. For the inland areas with low deign wind velocity, though the structural height is not in the highest wind velocity zone of downburst, the wind load under downburst is much higher than that under normal wind. The main members above the transverse separator of the legs will be firstly destroyed. For the littoral areas with high deign wind velocity, the wind load under downburst is lower than under normal wind. Transmission towers are not controlled by the wind loads from downbursts in design process.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1369-1389
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• 2016

This paper investigates the flexural stiffness of simply supported steel-concrete composite I-beams under positive bending moment through combined experimental, numerical, and different standard methods. 14 composite beams are tested for experimental study and parameters including shear connection degree, transverse and longitudinal reinforcement ratios, loading way are also investigated. ABAQUS is employed to establish finite element (FE) models to simulate the flexural behavior of composite beams. The influences of a few key parameters, such as the shear connection degree, stud arrangement, stud diameter, beam length, loading way, on the flexural stiffness is also studied by parametric study. In addition, three widely used standard methods including GB, AISC, and British standards are used to estimate the flexural stiffness of the composite beams. The results are compared with the experimental and numerical results. The findings have provided comprehensive understanding of the flexural stiffness and the modelling of the composite beams. The results also indicate that GB 50017-2003 could provide better results in comparison to the other standards.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.55-70
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• 2011

This study investigates the design criteria required for wind barriers to protect vehicles running on an expressway under a high side wind. At the first stage of this study, the lateral deviations of vehicles in crosswinds were computed from the commercial software, CarSim and TruckSim, and the critical wind speeds for a car accident were then evaluated from a predefined car accident index. The critical wind speeds for driving stability were found to be 35 m/s for a small passenger car, yet 30 m/s for a truck and a bus. From the wind tunnel tests, the minimum height of a wind barrier required to reduce the wind speed by 50% was found to be 12.5% of the road width. In the case of parallel bridges, the placement of two edge wind barriers plus one wind barrier at center was recommended for a separation distance larger than 20 m (four lanes) and 10 m (six lanes) respectively, otherwise two wind barriers were recommended.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.997-1017
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• 2014

According to the structure characteristics of the non-uniform beam bridge, a practical model for calculating the vibration equation of the non-uniform beam bridge is given and the application scope of the model includes not only the beam bridge structure but also the non-uniform beam with added masses and elastic supports. Based on the Bernoulli-Euler beam theory, extending the application of the modal perturbation method and establishment of a semi-analytical method for solving the vibration equation of the non-uniform beam with added masses and elastic supports based is able to be made. In the modal subspace of the uniform beam with the elastic supports, the variable coefficient differential equation that describes the dynamic behavior of the non-uniform beam is converted to nonlinear algebraic equations. Extending the application of the modal perturbation method is suitable for solving the vibration equation of the simply supported and continuous non-uniform beam with its arbitrary added masses and elastic supports. The examples, that are analyzed, demonstrate the high precision and fast convergence speed of the method. Further study of the timesaving method for the dynamic characteristics of symmetrical beam and the symmetry of mode shape should be developed. Eventually, the effects of elastic supports and added masses on dynamic characteristics of the three-span non-uniform beam bridge are reported.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.113-140
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• 2004

A mixed eight-node hexahedral element formulated via the Hu-Washizu principle as well as the field extrapolation technique is presented. The mixed element with only three translational degrees of freedom at each node can provide extremely accurate and reliable performance for popular benchmark problems such as spacial beams, plates, shells as well as general three-dimensional elasticity problems. Numerical calculations also show that when extremely skewed and coarse meshes and nearly incompressible materials are used, the proposed mixed element can still possess excellent behaviour. The mixed formulation starts with introduction of a parallelepiped domain associated with the given general eight-node hexahedral element. Then, the assumed strain field at the nodal level is constructed via the Hu-Washizu variational principle for that associated parallelepiped domain. Finally, the assumed strain field at the nodal level of the given hexahedral element is established by using the field extrapolation technique, and then by using the trilinear shape functions the assumed strain field of the whole element domain is obtained. All matrices involved in establishing the element stiffness matrix can be evaluated analytically and expressed explicitly; however, a 24 by 24 matrix has to be inverted to construct the displacement extrapolation matrix. The proposed hexahedral element satisfies the patch test as long as the element with a shape of parallelepiped.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.75-81
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• 2008

In this study, machining characteristics of AIN-hBN composites were evaluated in end-milling process. As a first step, AIN-hBN composite specimens with various hBN contents were prepared using hot press method. Material properties of the composites, such as relative density, Young's modulus and fracture toughness, were measured and compared. Then, a series of end-milling experinients were performed under various cutting conditions by changing cutting speed, depth-of-cut and feed rate. Cutting force variations were measured using a tool dynamometer during the cutting experiments. Machined surfaces of the specimens were observed using SEM and a surface pro filer to investigate the surface integrity changes. The cutting force decreased with an increases of hBN content. The cutting process was almost impossible for monolithic AIN, owing to severe chipping. In contrast, at high content of hBN, surface damage and chipping decreased, and better surface roughness can be obtained.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.5
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• pp.501-513
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• 2020

In the present work, the optimization of machining parameters to achieve the desired technological parameters such as surface roughness, tool radial vibration and material removal rate have been carried out using response surface methodology (RSM). The hard turning of EN19 alloy steel with coated carbide (GC3015) cutting tools was studied. The main problem faced in manufacturer of hard and high precision components is the selection of optimum combination of cutting parameters for achieving required quality of surface finish with maximum production rate. This problem can be solved by development of mathematical model and execution of experiments by RSM. A face centred central composite design (FCCD), which comes under the RSM approach, with cutting parameters (cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut) was used for statistical analysis. A second-order regression model were developed to correlate the cutting parameters with surface roughness, tool vibration and material removal rate. Consequently, numerical and graphical optimization were performed to obtain the most appropriate cutting parameters to produce the lowest surface roughness with minimal tool vibration and maximum material removal rate using desirability function approach. Finally, confirmation experiments were performed to verify the pertinence of the developed mathematical models.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.505-518
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• 2001

Shantou Bay Bridge is the first long-span suspension bridge in China. Because of its location near the Shantou Seaport and its exposure to high typhoon winds, wind-resistant studies are necessary to be made. In this paper, critical flutter wind speeds and buffeting responses of this bridge at its operation and main construction stages are investigated. The Buffeting Response Spectrum method is first briefly presented. Then the sectional model test is carried out to directly obtain the critical flutter wind speed and to identify the flutter derivatives, which are adopted for the later analysis of the buffeting responses using the Buffeting Response Spectrum method. Finally the aeroelastic full bridge model is tested to further investigate the dynamic effects of the bridge. The results from the tests and the computations indicate that the flutter and buffeting behaviors of the Shantou Bay Bridge are satisfied.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.99-119
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• 2007

Estimations of wind flow over terrain are often needed for applications such as pollutant dispersion, transport safety or wind farm location. Whilst field studies offer very detailed information regarding the wind potential over a small region, the cost of instrumenting a natural fetch alone is prohibitive. Wind tunnels offer one alternative although wind tunnel simulations can suffer from scale effects and high costs as well. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) offers a second alternative which is increasingly seen as a viable one by wind engineers. There are two issues associated with CFD however, that of accuracy of the predictions and set-up and simulation times. This paper aims to address the two issues by demonstrating, by way of an investigation of wind potential for the Askervein Hill, that a good level of accuracy can be obtained with CFD (10% for the speed up ratio) and that it is possible to automate the simulations in order to compute a full wind rose efficiently. The paper shows how a combination of script and session files can be written to drive and automate CFD simulations based on commercial software. It proposes a general methodology for the automation of CFD applied to the computation of wind flow over a region of interest.