• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.171-178
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• 2013

The emergence of a growing number of tall buildings, often with unusual shapes and innovative structural systems, has led to the realization of the need for and the importance of field measurements. The new China Central Television (CCTV) Tower in Beijing is one of tall buildings with a highly unusual shape and a complex structural system, requiring field measurements to identify its dynamic characteristics for the subsequent dynamic analysis of the tower under wind excitation, seismic-induced ground motion and traffic-induced ground motion. The structural system and the finite element model of the CCTV Tower are first introduced in this paper. The computed natural frequencies and mode shapes are then presented as a reference for the field measurement. After introducing the arrangement of the ambient vibration measurement, the field measured natural frequencies and damping ratios of the CCTV Tower are presented and the measured natural frequencies are finally compared with the computed ones. It was found that the structural damping ratios of the CCTV Tower are small and the computed natural frequencies are smaller than the measured ones by about 12~17%.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.301-311
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• 2012

This paper presents results from the structural monitoring of a steel wind tower characterized and presented in Part I of the paper. Monitoring period corresponds to about fifteen months of measurements. Results presented refer to stress distribution on shell and in bolts at different heights, stress fatigue spectra, section forces along height evaluated from the stress measurements and comparison with design forces, dynamic response in terms of accelerations, stresses, deflections and rotations.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.609-627
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• 2013

The Yingxian wooden tower in China is currently the tallest wooden tower in the world. It was built in 1056 AD and is 65.86 m high. Field measurements of wind speed and wind-induced response of this tower are conducted. The wind characteristics, including the average wind speed, wind direction, turbulence intensity, gust factor, turbulence integral length scale and velocity spectrum are investigated. The power spectral density and the root-mean-square wind-induced acceleration are analyzed. The structural modal parameters of this tower are identified with two different methods, including the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) combined with the Random Decrement Technique (RDT) and Hilbert transform technique, and the stochastic subspace identification (SSI) method. Results show that strong wind is coming predominantly from the West-South of the tower which is in the same direction as the inclination of the structure. The Von Karman spectrum can describe the spectrum of wind speed well. Wind-induced torsional vibration obviously occurs in this tower. The natural frequencies identified by EMD, RDT and Hilbert Transform are close to those identified by SSI method, but there is obvious difference between the identified damping ratios for the first two modes.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.361-374
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• 1996

In general, a cooling tower has two major noise sources, one is the fan and the other is the falling water. The fan noise is produced by passage of its blades through the air and radiates from the fan stack. Noises from the falling water are caused by splashing and dropping of water cascading over the internal filler of the cooling tower and into the basin and radiate from the louvered face. In this paper, the noise measurements and its frequency analysis are carried out for the locations facing the louvered side and near the fan stack referring the related code and standards in order to study the noise characteristics of the induced-draft cooling tower, especially for the buildings. As a result, it is found that for every doubling of distance from the noise source the noise level decreases by 2~4dBA in the near field with reflect surfaces and decreases by about 6dBA also in the far field without reflect surfaces. As a supplement to the noise measurements, a computer program with simple algorithm is developed in order to estimate the noise level at a distance from the cooling tower, so that the user could apply and modify it for the particular boundary conditions easily.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.523-538
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• 2017

A series of field vibration tests are conducted on the Runyang Suspension Bridge during both the construction and operational stages. The purpose of this study is devoted to the analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the suspension tower. After the tower was erected, an array of accelerometers was deployed to study the evolution of its modal parameters during the construction process. Dynamic tests were first performed under the freestanding tower condition and then under the tower-cable condition after the superstructure was installed. Based on the identified modal parameters, the effect of the pile-soil-structure interaction on dynamic characteristics of the suspension tower is investigated. Moreover, the stiffness of the pile foundation is successfully identified using a probabilistic finite model updating method. Furthermore, challenges of identifying the dynamic properties of the tower from the coupled responses of the tower-cable system are discussed in detail. It's found that compared with the identified results from the freestanding tower, the longitudinal and torsional natural frequencies of the tower in the tower-cable system have changed significantly, while the lateral mode frequencies change slightly. The identified modal results from measurements by the structural health monitoring system further confirmed that the vibrations of the bridge subsystems (i.e., the tower, the suspended deck and the main cable) are strongly coupled with one another.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.363-389
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• 2016

Deficient modes that cannot be always identified from different sets of measurement data may exist in the application of operational modal analysis such as the stochastic subspace identification techniques in large-scale civil structures. Based on a recent work using the long-term ambient vibration measurements from an instrumented cable-stayed bridge under different wind excitation conditions, a benchmark problem is launched by taking the same bridge as a test bed to further intensify the exploration of mode identifiability. For systematically assessing this benchmark problem, a recently developed SSI algorithm based on an alternative stabilization diagram and a hierarchical sifting process is extended and applied in this research to investigate several sets of known and blind monitoring data. The evaluation of delicately selected cases clearly distinguishes the effect of traffic excitation on the identifiability of the targeted deficient mode from the effect of wind excitation. An additional upper limit for the vertical acceleration amplitude at deck, mainly induced by the passing traffic, is subsequently suggested to supplement the previously determined lower limit for the wind speed. Careful inspection on the shape vector of the deficient mode under different excitation conditions leads to the postulation that this mode is actually induced by the motion of the central tower. The analysis incorporating the tower measurements solidly verifies this postulation by yielding the prevailing components at the tower locations in the extended mode shape vector. Moreover, it is also confirmed that this mode can be stably identified under all the circumstances with the addition of tower measurements. An important lesson learned from this discovery is that the problem of mode identifiability usually comes from the lack of proper measurements at the right locations.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.257-273
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• 2010

The aerodynamic and aero-elastic model tests of the China''s highest cooling tower has been carried out in the TJ-3 Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel of Tongji University. By adopting a scanivalve system, the external wind pressure is firstly measured on $12{\times}36$ taps for a single tower, two and four grouped towers under the condition of both smooth flow and the boundary layer due to surrounding geographic and building topography. The measurements of internal wind pressure distribution of $6{\times}36$ taps are taken for a single tower under the various ventilation ratios ranging from 0% to 100% of stuffing layers located at the bottom of the tower. In the last stage, the wind tunnel tests with an aero-elastic model are carefully conducted to determine wind-induced displacements at six levels (each with eight points) with laser displacement sensors. According to the measurement results of wind pressure or vibration response, the extreme aerodynamic loading values of the single or grouped towers are accordingly analyzed based on probability correlation technique.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.819-824
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• 2010

Model test was performed for new earth retention system that is a kind of truss tower with non-supported excavation. For the model test, a dimensional analysis of the full-scaled truss tower system was performed. The horizontal displacement of the wall, bending stress acting on TTS system were measured during construction simulation. From the measurements, the performance of the truss tower system was investigated.

• Journal of Wind Energy
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.91-99
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• 2023

In research conducted on a southwestern Korean offshore meteorological tower, acceleration datasets were gathered over half a year with time-history sensors. To enhance data credibility, a parallel measurement system was used for verification. A model of the tower was configured using beam elements, and with modifications accounting for added stiffness from auxiliary structures. Ground interactions were considered as calibrated springs based on soil layer properties. The tower's dynamic attributes and mass sensitivity were discerned using eigenvalue analysis. The structural natural frequency was consistent, with variations primarily due to new equipment adding approximately 1400 kgs. With free vibration damping assumptions, a damping ratio of roughly 1 % was derived.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.401-412
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• 2009

A method is applied for the estimation of structural damage of tall slender structures using natural frequency and displacements measurements by GPS. The relationship between the variation in the global stiffness matrix (or in the stiffness of each finite element) and the change in the natural frequencies of the structure is given. In engineering practice the number of frequencies which can be derived by GPS measurement of long-period structures will be equal to one, two or three first natural frequencies. This allows us in initial studies to detect damage with frequency changes based on forward methods in which the measured frequencies are compared with the predicted analytical data. This idea, of health monitoring from possible changes to natural frequencies, or from a statement of excessive displacements is applied to the Stuttgart TV Tower.