• Wind and Structures
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.23-44
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• 2007

Wind tunnel experiments on small scale groups of tanks are reported in the paper, with the aim of evaluating the pressure patterns due to group effects. A real tank configuration is studied in detail because one tank buckled during a hurricane category 3. Three configurations are studied in a wind tunnel, two with several tanks and different wind directions, and a third one with just one blocking tank. The pressures were measured in the cylindrical part and in the roof of the tank, in order to obtain pressure coefficients. Next, computational buckling analyses were carried out for the three configurations to evaluate the buckling pressure of the target structure. Finally, imperfection-sensitivity was investigated for one of the configurations, and moderate sensitivity was found, with reductions in the maximum load of the order of 25%. The results help to explain the buckling of the tank for the levels of wind experienced during the hurricane.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.533-542
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• 2002

This paper considers the buckling and post-buckling behavior of empty metal storage tanks under wind load. The structures of such tanks may be idealized as cantilever cylindrical shells, and the structural response is investigated using a computational model. The modeling employs a doubly curved finite element based on a theory by Simo and coworkers, which is capable of handling large displacements and plasticity. Buckling results for tanks with four different geometric relations are presented to consider the influence of the ratios between the radius and the height of the shell (R/L), and between the radius and the thickness (R/t). The studies aim to clarify the differences in the shells regarding their imperfection-sensitivity. The results show that thin-walled short tanks, with R/L = 3, display high imperfection sensitivity, while tanks with R/L = 0.5 are almost insensitive to imperfections. Changes in the total potential energy of tanks that would buckle under the same high wind pressures are also considered.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.325-342
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• 2005

This paper deals with the buckling behavior of thin-walled aboveground tanks under wind load. In order to do that, the wind pressures are obtained by means of wind-tunnel experiments, while the structural non linear response is computed by means of a finite element discretization of the tank. Wind-tunnel models were constructed and tested to evaluate group effects in tandem configurations, i.e. one or two tanks shielding an instrumented tank. Pressures on the roof and on the cylindrical part were measured by pressure taps. The geometry of the target tank is similar in relative dimensions to typical tanks found in oil storage facilities, and several group configurations were tested with blocking tanks of different sizes and different separation between the target tank and those blocking it. The experimental results show changes in the pressure distributions around the circumference of the tank for half diameter spacing, with respect to an isolated tank with similar dimensions. Moreover, when the front tank of the tandem array has a height smaller than the target tank, increments in the windward pressures were measured. From the computational analysis, it seems that the additional stiffness provided by the roof prevents reductions in the buckling load for cases even when increments in pressures develop in the top region of the cylinder.

• Journal of Wind Energy
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.31-41
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• 2022

The rated power and rotor diameters of wind turbines are significantly increasing for maximized energy production and minimized LCoE, especially for offshore wind turbines. Along with this, the loads and weight of rotor blades are inevitably increasing. Therefore, designers are striving to develop light structures by reducing unnecessary materials for the blades. However, designers have to develop a novel design concept to increase the critical buckling load since lightweight designs compromise the critical buckling load, which is frequently the critical design point for ultra-large wind turbine blades. In this paper, the concept of local reinforcement is introduced as a new structural design concept to increase the buckling load. Moreover, its verification procedure and modeling methodology were studied and verified by application to a 3 MW wind turbine blade.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.178-188
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• 2007

In this paper, a half-scaled substructure test was performed to evaluate the buckling and structural safety of an existing transmission tower subjected to wind load. A loading scheme was devised to reproduce the dead and wind loads of a prototype transmission tower, which uses a triangular jig that is mounted on the reduced model to which the similarity law of a half length was applied. As a result of the preliminary numerical analysis carried out to evaluate the stability of a specimen for the design load, it was confirmed that the calculated axial forces of tower leg members were distributed to $80{\sim}90%$ of an admissible buckling load. When the substructured transmission tower was loaded by 270% of its maximum admissible buckling load, it was failed due to the local buckling that is occurred in joints with weak constraints for out-of-plane behavior of leg members. By inspection of load-displacement curves, displacements and strains of members, it is considered that this local buckling was due to additional eccentric force by unbalanced deformation because the time that is reached to yielding stress due to the bending moment is different at each point of a same section.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.19 no.4 s.74
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• pp.369-374
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• 2006

This paper describes dynamic characteristics of a power transmission tower consisting of lots of power lines and insulators. A numerical 3D modeling for the static, dynamic and buckling analyses of the power transmission tower is presented considering the case when the power lines are cut. Eigenvalue analysis indicates that the transmission tower shows different behavior comparing to usual structures governed by several low modes. The transmission tower is governed by lots of modes. It is verified that the transmission tower is structurally safe against the static wind and buckling loads. But the structural and buckling safety is not guaranteed when all power lines are cut, which comes to collapse the transmission tower. Further study is in need to overcome such case. Wind dynamic analysis shows that fluctuating wind loads increase the response of the tower.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.190-193
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• 2005

The purpose of the present study is to design a 500W-class micro scale composite wind turbine blade. The blade airfoil of FFA-W3-211 was selected to meet Korean weather condition. The skin-spar-f Dam sandwich type structure was adopted for improving buckling and vibration damping characteristics. The design loads were determined at wind speed of 25m/s. and the structural analysis was performed to confirm safety and stability from strength. buckling and natural frequency using the finite element code. NISA II [6]. The prototype was manufactured using the hand-lay up method and it was experimently tested using the sand bag loading method. In order to evaluate the design results. it was compared with experimental results. According to comparison results. the estimated results such as compressible stress. max tip deflection natural frequency and buckling load factor were well agreed with the experimental results.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.55-60
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate the buckling load of filament-wound composite towers for large scale wind-turbine using finite element method(FEM). To define material properties, we used both the effective property method and the stacking properties method. The effective properties method is to assume that composite consists of one ply. The stacking properties method is to assume that composite consists of some stacked plies. First, linear buckling analysis of the tower, filament-wounded with angles of [${\pm}30$] was carried out by two methods for composite material properties, the stacking method and the effective method. and FE analysis was performed for the composite towers according to filament winding angles of [${\pm}30$], [${\pm}45$], [${\pm}60$]. FE analysis results using the stacking properties of the composite were in good agreement with the results by the effective properties. The difference between FEM results by material properties methods was approximately 0~2.3% in buckling Analysis and approximately 0~0.6% in modal analysis. And above the angle of [${\pm}60$], there was a little change of buckling load.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the buckling load of filament-wound composite towers for large scale wind-turbines using the finite element method (FEM). To define the material properties, we used both the effective property method and stacking properties method. The effective properties method assumes that a composite consists of one ply. The stacking properties method assumes that a composite consists of several stacked plies. First, a linear buckling analysis of the tower, filament-wound with angles of $[{\pm}60]$, was carried out using the two methods for composite material properties: the stacking method and effective method. An FE analysis was also performed for the composite towers using the filament winding angles of $[{\pm}30]$, $[{\pm}45]$, and $[{\pm}60]$. The FE analysis results using the stacking properties of the composite were in good agreement with the results from the effective properties method. The difference between the FEM results and material properties method was approximately 0~2.3%. Above the angle of $[{\pm}60]$, there was little change in the buckling load.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.5
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• pp.487-500
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• 2020

Stiffeners can be utilised to enhance the strength of thin-walled wind turbine towers in engineering practise, thus, structural performance of wind turbine towers by means of different stiffening schemes should be compared to explore the optimal structural enhancement method. In this paper two alternative stiffening methods, employing horizontal or vertical stiffeners, for steel tubular wind turbine towers have been studied. In particular, two groups of three wind turbine towers of 50m, 150m and 250m in height, stiffened by horizontal rings and vertical strips respectively, were analysed by using FEM software of ABAQUS. For each height level tower, the mass of the stiffening rings is equal to that of vertical stiffeners each other. The maximum von Mises stresses and horizontal sways of these towers with vertical stiffeners is compared with the corresponding ring-stiffened towers. A linear buckling analysis is conducted to study the buckling modes and critical buckling loads of the three height levels of tower. The buckling modes and eigenvalues of the 50m, 150m and 250m vertically stiffened towers were also compared with those of the horizontally stiffened towers. The numbers and central angles of the vertical stiffeners are considered as design variables to study the effect of vertical stiffeners on the structural performance of wind turbine towers. Following an extensive parametric study, these strengthening techniques were compared with each other and it is obtained that the use of vertical stiffeners is a more efficient approach to enhance the stability and strength of intermediate and high towers than the use of horizontal rings.