• Wind and Structures
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.183-199
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• 1998

This paper discusses some of the findings arising from long-term monitoring of the wind effects on a transmission tower located on an exposed site in South-West England. Site wind speeds have been measured, together with the foundation loads at the base of each of the four legs. The results show good correlation between the wind speeds and leg strains (loads) for a given wind direction, as expected, for wind speeds in excess of 10 m/s. Comparisons between the measured strains and those determined from the UK Code of Practice for lattice towers (BS8100), for the same wind speed and direction, show that the Code over-estimates most of the measured foundation loads by a moderate amount of about 14% at the higher wind speeds. This tends to confirm the validity of the Code for assessing design foundation loads. A finite element analysis model has been used to examine the dynamic behaviour of the tower and conductor system. This shows that, in the absence of the conductor, the tower alone has similar natural frequencies of approximately 2.2 Hz in the both the first (transversal) and second (longitudinal) modes, whilst for the complete system and conductor oscillations dominate, giving similar frequencies of approximately 0.1 Hz for both the first and second modes.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.367-379
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• 2024

Compared with traditional transmission towers, T-shaped angle towers have long cross-arms and are specially used for ultrahigh-voltage direct-current (UHVDC) transmission. Nevertheless, the wind loads of T-shaped towers have not received much attention in previous studies. Consequently, a series of wind tunnel tests on the T-shaped towers featuring cross-arms of varying lengths were conducted using the high-frequency force balance (HFFB) technique. The test results reveal that the T-shaped tower's drag coefficients nearly remain constant at different testing velocities, demonstrating that Reynolds number effects are negligible in the test range of 1.26 × 10⁴-2.30 × 10⁴. The maximum values of the longitudinal base shear and torsion of the T-shaped tower are reached at 15° and 25° of wind incidence, respectively. In the yaw angle, the crosswind coefficients of the tower body are quite small, whereas those of the cross-arms are significant, and as a result, the assumption in some load codes (such as ASCE 74-2020, IEC 60826-2017 and EN 50341-1:2012) that the resultant force direction is the same as the wind direction may be inappropriate for the cross-arm situation. The fitting formulas for the wind load-distribution factors of the tower body and cross-arms are developed, respectively, which would greatly facilitate the determination of the wind loads on T-shaped angle towers.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.95-108
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• 2006

Wind turbines are highly complex structures for numerical flow simulation. They normally comprise of a turbine mounted on a tower thus the movement of the turbine blades and the blade/tower interaction must be captured. In addition the ground effect should also be included. There are many more important features of wind turbines and it is difficult to include all of them. A simplified set of features is chosen here for both the turbine and the tower to show how the method can begin to identify the main points connected with wind turbine wake generation and tip vortex tower interaction. An approach to modelling the rotating blades of a turbine is proposed here. The model uses point forces based on blade element theory to model the blades and takes into account their time dependent motion. This means that local instantaneous velocities can be used as a basis for the blade element theory. The model is incorporated into a large eddy simulation code and, although many important features are left out of the model, the velocity/power performance relation is generally of the correct order of magnitude. Suggested improvements to the method are discussed.

• Journal of Wind Energy
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.13-20
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• 2023

A self-climbing crane (SCC) system is under development for the installation and maintenance of wind turbines. It can move vertically along the wind turbine tower by itself. One of the key components of the SCC system is the clamping pad to maintain a safe position on the wind turbine tower. The SCC system can maintain its position on the tower from the frictional force generated between the surfaces of the clamping pads and the tower. If the frictional force provided by the clamping pads are insufficient, the SCC system cannot stay in the vertical position on the tower. Therefore, the development of clamping pads with sufficient frictional force is very important for the SCC system. At the same time, the operation of the SCC system should not damage the paint coating of the wind turbine tower. In order to verify that the frictional force is sufficient and that frictional and compressive forces do not cause damage to the paint, a number of combined compression and shear loading tests were conducted using a test device prepared for this study. The details regarding the test specimens, test procedure, and test results are summarized in this paper.

• Journal of the wind engineering institute of Korea
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.171-177
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• 2018

In order to investigate the cause of damage of the offshore meteorological tower, the measured wind speed data were analyzed, the dynamic displacement due to fluctuating wind load and wave load was calculated, and the fatigue was examined for vortex-induced vibration. It was confirmed from the results that the vibration lasting for four hours occurred in the meteorological tower when the maximum wind speeds for 10 minutes were compared for both the vane anemometer and ultrasonic anemometer. The effect of the gust wind on the dynamic response of the meteorological tower was greater than the wave. However, the combined forces acting on the meteorological tower was much lower than the design force even though the wind and wave loads were simultaneously applied. The vortex-induced vibration seemed to be cause of the fatigue failure in the connecting bolts. The destruction of the offshore meteorological tower was considered to be a vortex-induced vibration, not a fluctuating fluid flows.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.449-468
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• 2015

Current wind-resistance designs of large-scale indirect dry cooling towers (IDCTs) exclude an important factor: the influence of the ventilation rate for radiator shutter on wind loads on the outer surfaces of the tower shell. More seemingly overlooked aspects are the effects of various ventilation rates on the wind pressure distribution on the tower surfaces of two IDCTs, and the feature of the flow field around them. In order to investigate the effects of the radiator shutter ventilation rates on the aerodynamic interference between IDCTs, this paper established the numerical wind tunnel model based on the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) technology, and analyzed the influences of various radiator shutter ventilation rates on the aerodynamic loads acting upon a single and two extra-large IDCTs during building, installation, and operation stages. Through the comparison with the results of physical wind tunnel test and different design codes, the results indicated that: the influence of the ventilation rate on the flow field and shape coefficients on the outer surface of a single IDCT is weak, and the curve of mean shape coefficients is close to the reference curve provided by the current design code. In a two-tower combination, the ventilation rate significantly affects the downwind surface of the front tower and the upwind surface of the back tower, and the larger positive pressure shifts down along the upwind surface of the back tower as the ventilation rate increases. The ventilation rate significantly influences the drag force coefficient of the back tower in a two-tower combination, the drag force coefficient increases with the ventilation rate and reaches the maximum in a building status of full ventilation, and the maximum drag coefficient is 11% greater than that with complete closure.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.367-384
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• 2017

The Maanshan Bridge over Yangtze River in China is a new long-span suspension bridge with double main spans of $2{\times}1080m$ and a closed streamline cross-section of single box deck. The flutter and buffeting performances were investigated via wind tunnel tests of a full bridge aeroelastic model at a geometric scale of 1:211. The tests were conducted in both smooth wind and simulated boundary layer wind fields. Emphasis is placed on studying the interference effect of adjacent span via installing a wind deflector and a wind separating board to shelter one span of the bridge model from incoming flow. Issues related to effects of mid-tower stiffness and deck supporting conditions are also discussed. The testing results show that flutter critical wind velocities in smooth flow, with a wind deflector, are remarkably lower than those without. In turbulent wind, torsional and vertical standard deviations for the deck responses at midspan in testing cases without wind deflector are generally less than those at the midspan exposed to wind in testing cases with wind deflector, respectively. When double main spans are exposed to turbulent wind, the existence of either span is a mass damper to the other. Furthermore, both effects of mid-tower stiffness and deck supporting conditions at the middle tower on the flutter and buffeting performances of the Maanshan Bridge are unremarkable.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.361-379
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• 2017

In view of the importance of the wind-structure interaction for tall and slender structures, an aeroelastic model test of the 610m-high TV tower with a complex and unique structural configuration and appearance carried out successfully. The assembled aeroelastic model of the TV tower with complex shape and structure was designed and made to ensure the similarities of the major natural frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes. The simulation of the atmospheric boundary layer with higher turbulent intensity is presented. Since the displacement and acceleration responses at several measurement sections were directly measured in the wind tunnel test, a multi-mode approach was presented to indirectly estimate the displacement and acceleration responses at arbitrary structural floors based on the measured ones. It can be seen that it is remarkable for the displacement and acceleration responses of the TV tower in the two horizontal directions under wind loads and is small for the dynamic response of the torsional displacement and acceleration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.602-606
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• 2011

In this study, operational vibration experiment and analysis have been conducted for the 4-blade small vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) including the effect of tower elastic behavior. Computational structural dynamics analysis method is applied to obtain Campbell diagram for the VAWT with elastic tower. An open type wind-tunnel is used to change and keep the wind velocity during the ground test. Equivalent reduced elastic tower is supported to the VAWT so that the elastic stiffness effect of the tower can be reflected to the present vibration experiment. Various excitation sources with aerodynamic forces are considered and the dominant operating vibration phenomena are physically investigated in detail.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.35.1-35.1
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• 2011

When the wind speed is measured by the met-mast sensor it is distorted due to the shadow effect of tower. In this paper the tower shadow effect is analyzed by a computational fluid dynamics code. First three dimensional modeling and flow analysis of the met-mast system were performed. The results were compared with the available experimental wind-tunnel test data to confirm the validity of the meshes and turbulence model. Two-dimensional model was then developed based on the three-dimensional works and experimental data. 2D analysis for various Reynolds numbers and turbulence strengths were then performed to establish the tower shadow effect database, which can be utilized as correction factors for the measured wind energy.