• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.787-806
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• 2015

Due to corrosion, a large number of belt conveyors support structure in industrial plants have deteriorated. Severe corrosion may result in collapse of the structures. Therefore, practical and effective structural assessment techniques are needed. In this paper, damage identification methods based on two specific local vibration modes, named periodic and isolated local vibration modes, are proposed. The identification methods utilize the facts that support structures have many identical members repeated along the belt conveyor and there exist some local modes within a small frequency range where vibrations of these identical members are much larger than those of the other members. When one of these identical members is damaged, this member no longer vibrates in those modes. Instead, the member vibrates alone in an isolated mode with a lower frequency. A damage identification method based on frequencies comparison of these vibration modes and another method based on amplitude comparison of the periodic local vibration mode are explained. These methods do not require the baseline measurement records of undamaged structure. The methods is capable of detecting multiple damages simultaneously. The applicability of the methods is experimentally validated with a laboratory model and a real belt-conveyor support structure.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.619-629
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• 2020

Solar towers, which often has a large aspect ratio and low fundamental natural frequency, were extremely prone to large amplitude of wind-induced vibrations, especially Vortex-Induced Vibration (VIV). A tiny Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) with conveniently adjustable eddy current damping was specially designed and manufactured for elastic wind tunnel tests of a solar tower. A series of numerical simulations by using the COMSOL software were conducted to determine three key parameters, including the thickness of the back iron plate and the conductive plate (T_b and T_c), the distance between the magnet and the conductive plate (T_d). Based on the results of numerical simulations, a tiny TMD was manufactured and its structural parameters were experimentally identified. The optimized values of the tiny TMD can be conveniently realized. The tiny TMD was installed at the top of the elastic test model of a 243-meter-high solar tower, and a series of wind tunnel tests were carried out to examine the effectiveness of the TMD in suppressing wind-induced responses of the test model. The results showed that the wind-induced responses could be obviously reduced by the TMD, especially in the cross-wind direction. The cross-wind RMS and peak responses at the critical wind velocity can be reduced by about 86% and 75%, respectively. However, the maximum reduction of the responses at the design wind velocity is about 45%, obviously less than that at the critical wind velocity.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2022

This work elaborately investigates the influences of the guideway geometry parameters and track irregularity on the dynamic performances of the suspended monorail vehicle-guideway system (SMVGS). Firstly, a spatial dynamic analysis model of the SMVGS is established by adopting ANSYS parameter design language. Then, the dynamic interaction between a vehicle with maximum design load and guideway is investigated by numerical simulation and field tests, revealing the vehicle-guideway dynamic features. Subsequently, the influences of the guideway geometry parameters and track irregularity on the dynamic performances of the SMVGS are analyzed and discussed in detail, and the reasonable ranges of several key geometry parameters of the guideway are also obtained. Results show that the vehicle-guideway dynamic responses change nonlinearly with an increase of the guideway span, and especially the guideway dynamic performances can be effectively improved by reducing the guideway span; based on a comprehensive consideration of all performance indices of the SMVGS, the deflection-span ratio of the suspended monorail guideway is finally recommended to be 1/1054~1/868. The train load could cause a large bending deformation of the pier, which would intensify the car-body lateral displacement and decrease the vehicle riding comfort; to well limit the bending deformation of the pier, its cross-section dimension is suggested to be more than 0.8 m×0.8 m. The addition of the track irregularity amplitude has small influences on the displacements and stress of the guideway; however, it would significantly increase the vehicle-guideway vibrations and rate of load reduction of the driving tyre.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1712-1724
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• 2024

Spiral tubes are used in a wide range of applications and it is significant to understand the vibration introduced by two-phase flow in spiral tubes. In this paper, the numerical method is used to study the vibration induced by the gas-liquid two-phase flow in a spiral tube with different flow regimes. The pressure fluctuation characteristics at the pipe wall and the solid vibration response characteristics are obtained. The results show that the motion of small bubbles in bubbly flow leads to small pressure fluctuations with low-frequency broadband (0-50 Hz). The motion of the gas plug in the plug flow causes small amplitude periodic pressure fluctuation with a shortened low-frequency broadband (0-15 Hz) compared to the bubbly flow. The motion of the gas slug in the slug flow causes large periodic fluctuations in pressure with a significant dominant frequency (6-7 Hz). The wavy flow is very stable and has a distinct main frequency (1-2 Hz). The vibration regime in the bubbly flow and wave flow are close to the first-order mode, and the vertical vibrating component is dominant. The plug flow and slug flow excite higher-order vibration modes, and the lateral vibration component plays more important part in the vibration response.