• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.43-57
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• 2020

Considering the wind barriers induced aerodynamic characteristic variations of both bridge deck and trains, this paper studies the effects of wind barriers on the safety and stability of trains as they run through an urban rail transit cable-stayed bridge which tends to be more vulnerable to wind due to its relatively low stiffness and lightweight. For the bridge equipped with wind barriers of different characteristics, the aerodynamic coefficients of trains and bridge decks are obtained from wind tunnel test firstly. And then, the space vibration equations of the wind-train-bridge system are established using the experimentally obtained aerodynamic coefficients. Through solving the dynamic equations, one can calculate the dynamic responses both the trains and bridge. The results indicate that setting wind barriers can effectively reduce the dynamic responses of both the trains and bridge, even though more wind forces acting on the bridge are caused by wind barriers. In addition, for urban rail transit cable-stayed bridges located in strong wind environment, the wind barriers are recommended to be set with 20% porosity and 2.5 m height according to the calculation results of cases with wind barriers porosity and height varying in two wide ranges, i.e., 10% - 40% and 2.0 m to 4.0 m, respectively.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.309-324
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• 2005

Aerodynamic damping often plays an important role in estimations of wind induced dynamic responses of super high-rise buildings. Across- and along-wind aerodynamic damping ratios of a square super high-rise building with a height of 300 m are identified with the Random Decrement technique (RDT) from random vibration responses of the SDOF aeroelastic model in simulated wind fields. Parametric studies on effects of reduced wind velocity, terrain type and structural damping ratio on the aerodynamic damping ratios are further performed. Finally formulas of across- and along-wind aerodynamic damping ratios of the square super high-rise building are derived with curve fitting technique and accuracy of the formulas is verified.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.317-323
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• 2020

A novel approach is presented to improve dynamic responses of a pedestrian bridge by utilizing decorative wind chimes. Through wind tunnel tests, it was verified that wind chimes can provide stabilization effects against flutter instability, especially at positive or negative wind angles of attack. At zero degrees of angle of attack, the wind chimes can change the flutter pattern from rapid divergence to gradual divergence. The decorative wind chimes can also provide damping effects to suppress the lateral sway motion of the bridge caused by pedestrian footfalls and wind forces. For this purpose, the swing frequency of the wind chimes should be about the same as the structural frequency, which can be achieved by adjusting the swing length of the wind chimes. The mass and the swing damping level are other two important and mutually interactive parameters in addition to the swing length. In general, 3% to 5% swing damping is necessary to achieve favorite results. In the study case, the equivalent damping level of the entire system can be increased from originally assumed 1% up to 5% by using optimized wind chimes.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.405-421
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• 2020

Quayside container cranes are important delivery machineries located in the most frontiers of container terminals, where strong wind attacks happen occasionally. Since the previous researches on quayside container cranes mainly focused on the mean wind load and static response characteristics, the fluctuating wind load and dynamic response characteristics require further investigations. In the present study, the aerodynamic wind loads on quayside container cranes were obtained from wind tunnel tests. The probabilistic and spectral models of the fluctuating aerodynamic loads were established. Then the joint probabilistic distributions of dynamic wind-induced responses were derived theoretically based on a series of Gaussian and independent assumption of resonant components. Finally, the results were validated by time domain analysis using wind tunnel data. It is concluded that the assumptions are acceptable. And the presented approach can estimate peak dynamic sliding force, overturning moments and leg uplifts of quayside container cranes effectively and efficiently.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.87 no.5
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• pp.451-460
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• 2023

Recently, the use of smartphones for structural health monitoring in civil engineering has drawn increasing attention due to their rapid development and popularization. In this study, the structural responses and dynamic characteristics of a 421-m-tall skyscraper during the landfall of Typhoon Muifa are monitored using an iPhone 13. The measured building acceleration responses are first corrected by the resampling technique since the sampling rate of smartphone-based measurement is unstable. Then, based on the corrected building acceleration, the wind-induced responses (i.e., along-wind and across-wind responses) are investigated and the serviceability performance of the skyscraper is assessed. Next, the amplitude-dependency and time-varying structural dynamic characteristics of the monitored supertall building during Typhoon Muifa are investigated by employing the random decrement technique and Bayesian spectral density approach. Moreover, the estimated results during Muifa are further compared with those of previous studies on the monitored building to discuss its long-term time-varying structural dynamic characteristics. The paper aims to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of smartphones for structural health monitoring of high-rise buildings.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.463-479
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• 2007

A series of wind tunnel sectional model dynamic tests of a twin-deck bridge were conducted at the CLP Power Wind/Wave Tunnel Facility (WWTF) of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) to investigate the effects of gap-width on the self-excited vibrations and the dynamic and aerodynamic characteristics of the bridge. Five 2.9 m long models with different gap-widths were fabricated and suspended in the wind tunnel to simulate a two-degrees-of-freedom (2DOF) bridge dynamic system, free to vibrate in both vertical and torsional directions. The mass, vertical frequency, and the torsional-to-vertical frequency ratio of the 2DOF systems were fixed to emphasize the effects of gap-width. A free-vibration test methodology was employed and the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA) was utilized to extract the eight flutter derivatives and the modal parameters from the coupled free-decay responses. The results of the zero gap-width configuration were in reasonable agreement with the theoretical values for an ideal thin flat plate in smooth flow and the published results of models with similar cross-sections, thus validating the experimental and analytical techniques utilized in this study. The methodology was further verified by the comparison between the measured and predicted free-decay responses. A comparison of results for different gap-widths revealed that variations of the gap-width mainly affect the torsional damping property, and that the configurations with greater gap-widths show a higher torsional damping ratio and hence stronger aerodynamic stability of the bridge.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.147-161
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• 2005

Two identical tall building models with square cross-sections are experimentally studied in a wind tunnel with high-frequency-force-balance (HFFB) technique to investigate the interference effects on wind loads and dynamic responses of the interfered building. Another wind tunnel test, in which the interfered model is an aeroelastic one, is also carried out to further study the interference effects. The results from the two kinds of tests are compared with each other. Then the influences of turbulence in oncoming wind on dynamic interference factors are analyzed. At last the artificial neural networks method is used to deal with the experimental data and the along-wind and across-wind dynamic interference factor $IF_{dx}$ & $IF_{dy}$ contour maps are obtained, which could be used as references for wind load codes of buildings.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.405-420
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• 2019

In this study, vibration characteristics of offshore wind turbine tower (WTT) with gravity-based foundation (GBF) are identified from dynamic responses under wave-induced excitations. The following approaches are implemented to achieve the objective. Firstly, the operational modal analysis methods such as frequency domain decomposition (FDD) and stochastic subspace identification (SSI) are selected to estimate modal parameters from output-only dynamic responses. Secondly, a GBF WTT model composed of superstructure, substructure and foundation is simulated as a case study by using a structural analysis program, MIDAS FEA. Thirdly, wave pressures acting on the WTT structure are established by nonlinear regular waves which are simulated from a computational fluid software, Flow 3D. Wave-induced acceleration responses of the target structure are analyzed by applying the simulated wave pressures to the GBF WTT model. Finally, modal parameters such as natural frequencies and mode shapes are estimated from the output-only acceleration responses and compared with the results from free vibration analysis. The effect of wave height and period on modal parameter extraction is also investigated for the mode identification of the GBF WTT.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.313-350
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• 2016

Taipei 101 Tower, which has 101 stories with height of 508 m, is located in Taipei where typhoons and earthquakes commonly occur. It is currently the second tallest building in the world. Therefore, the dynamic performance of the super-tall building under strong wind actions requires particular attentions. In this study, Large Eddy Simulation (LES) integrated with a new inflow turbulence generator and a new sub-grid scale (SGS) model was conducted to simulate the wind loads on the super-tall building. Three-dimensional finite element model of Taipei 101 Tower was established and used to evaluate the wind-induced responses of the high-rise structure based on the simulated wind forces. The numerical results were found to be consistent with those measured from a vibration monitoring system installed in the building. Furthermore, the equivalent static wind loads on the building, which were computed by the time-domain and frequency-domain analysis, respectively, were in satisfactory agreement with available wind tunnel testing results. It has been demonstrated through the validation studies that the numerical framework presented in this paper, including the recommended SGS model, the inflow turbulence generation technique and associated numerical treatments, is a useful tool for evaluation of the wind loads and wind-induced responses of tall buildings.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.589-608
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• 2017

A novel probabilistic approach is presented for estimating the equivalent static wind loads that produce a static response of the structure, which is "equivalent" in a probabilistic sense, to the extreme dynamic responses due to the unsteady pressure random field induced by the wind. This approach has especially been developed for complex structures (such as stadium roofs) for which the unsteady pressure field is measured in a boundary layer wind tunnel with a turbulent incident flow. The proposed method deals with the non-Gaussian nature of the unsteady pressure random field and presents a model that yields a good representation of both the quasi-static part and the dynamical part of the structural responses. The proposed approach is experimentally validated with a relatively simple application and is then applied to a stadium roof structure for which experimental measurements of unsteady pressures have been performed in boundary layer wind tunnel.