• Wind and Structures
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• 제39권1호
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• pp.47-69
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• 2024

Pounding of structures may result in considerable damages, to the extent of total failure during severe lateral loading events (e.g., earthquakes and wind). With the new generation of tall buildings in densely occupied locations, wind-induced pounding becomes of higher risk due to such structures' large deflections. This paper aims to develop mathematical formulations to determine the maximum pounding force when two adjacent structures come into contact. The study will first investigate wind-induced pounding forces of two equal-height structures with similar dynamic properties. The wind loads will be extracted from the Large Eddy Simulation models and applied to a Finite Element Method model to determine deflections and pounding forces. A Genetic Algorithm is lastly utilized to optimize fitting parameters used to correlate the maximum pounding force to the governing structural parameters. The results of the wind-induced pounding show that structures with a higher natural frequency will produce lower maximum pounding forces than those of the same structure with a lower natural frequency. In addition, taller structures are more susceptible to stronger pounding forces at closer separation distances. It was also found that the complexity of the mathematical formula from optimization depends on achieving a more accurate mapping for the trained database.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.231-251
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• 2016

This paper presents the experimental results of the wind tunnel tests for three symmetric, rectangular, tall building models on a typical open terrain considering the torsional motion-induced vibrations. The time histories of the wind pressure on these models under different reduced wind speeds and torsional amplitudes are obtained through the multiple point synchronous scanning pressure technique. Thereafter, the characteristics of both the Root Mean Square (RMS) coefficients and the spectra of the base shear/torque in the along-wind, across-wind, and torsional directions, respectively, are discussed. The results show that the RMS coefficients of the base shear/torque vary in the three directions with both the reduced wind speeds and the torsional vibration amplitudes. The variation of the RMS coefficients in the along-wind direction results mainly from the change of the aerodynamic forces, but sometimes from aeroelastic effects induced by torsional vibration. However, the variations of the RMS coefficients in the across-wind and torsional directions are caused by more equal weights of both the aerodynamic forces and the aeroelastic effects. As such, for the typical tall buildings, the modification of the aerodynamic forces in the along-wind, across-wind, and torsional directions, respectively, and the aeroelastic effects in the across-wind and torsional directions should be considered. It is identified that the torsional vibration amplitudes and the reduced wind speeds are two significant parameters for the aerodynamic forces on the structures in the three directions.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.63-76
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• 2009

The vortex-induced vibration of an ${\sqcap}$-shaped bridge deck sectional model is studied in this paper via the wind tunnel experiment. The vibratory behavior of the model shows that there is a transition of the predominant vibration mode from the vertical to the rotational degree of freedom as the wind speed increases gradually or vice versa as the wind speed decreases gradually. The vertical vibration is, however, much weaker in the latter case than in the former. This is a phenomenon which is difficult to model by existing parametric models for vortex-induced vibrations. In order to characterize the aeroelastic property of the ${\sqcap}$-shaped sectional model, a time domain force identification scheme is proposed to identify the time history of the aeroelastic forces. After the application of the proposed method, the resultant fluid forces are re-sampled in dimensionless time domain so that reduced frequency response function (RFRF) can be obtained to explore the properties of the vortex-induced wind forces in reduced frequency domain. The RFRF model is proven effective to characterize the correlation between the wind forces and bridge deck motions, thus can explain the aeroelastic behavior of the ${\sqcap}$-shaped sectional model.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제34권5호
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• pp.437-450
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• 2022

Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) is a significant concern when designing slender structures with square cross sections. VIV strongly depends on structural dynamics and flow states, which depend on the conditions of the approaching flow and shape of a structure. Therefore, the effects of the angle of attack on the coupling effects of VIV for a square cylinder are expected to be significant in practice. In this study, the aerodynamic forces for a fixed and elastically mounted square cylinder were measured using wind pressure tests. Aerodynamic forces on the stationary cylinder are firstly discussed by comparisons of variation of statistical aerodynamic force and wind pressure coefficient with wind angle of attack. The coupling effect between the aerodynamic forces and the motion of the oscillating square cylinder by VIV is subsequently investigated in detail at typical wind angels of attack with occurrence of three typical flow regimes, i.e., leading-edge separation, separation bubble (reattachment), and attached flow. The coupling effect are illustrated by discussing the onset of VIV, characteristics of aerodynamic forces during VIV, and interaction between motion and aerodynamic forces. The results demonstrate that flow states can be classified based on final separation points or the occurrence of reattachment. These states significantly influence coupling effects of the oscillating cylinder. Vibration enhances vortex shedding, which creates strong fluctuations in aerodynamic forces. However, differences in the lock-in range, aerodynamic force, and interaction process for angles of attack smaller and larger than the critical angle of attack revealed noteworthy characteristics in the VIV of a square cylinder.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제12권3호
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• pp.259-279
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• 2009

The paper is concerned with the numerical study of the cross-wind response of the 295 m-tall six-flue industrial chimney, located in the power station of Belchatow, Poland. The response of the chimney due to turbulent wind flow is caused by the lateral turbulence component and vortex excitation with taking into account motion-induced wind forces. The cross-wind response has been estimated by means of the random vibration approach. Three power spectral density functions suggested by Kaimal, Tieleman and Solari for the evaluation of the lateral turbulence component response are taken into account. The vortex excitation response has been calculated by means of the Vickery and Basu's model including some complements. Motion-induced wind forces acting on a vibrating chimney have been modeled as a nonlinear aerodynamic damping force. The influence of three components mentioned above on the total cross-wind response of the chimney has been investigated. Moreover, the influence of damping ratios, evaluated by Multi-mode Random Decrement Technique, and number of mode shapes of the chimney have been examined. Computer programmes have been developed to obtain responses of the chimney. The numerical results and their comparison are presented.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.153-178
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• 2008

Based on the empirical formulas for power spectra of generalized modal forces and local fluctuating wind forces in across-wind and torsional directions, the wind-induced lateral-torsional coupled response analysis of a representative rectangular tall building was conducted by setting various parameters such as eccentricities in centers of mass and/or rigidity and considering different torsional to lateral stiffness ratios. The eccentricity effects on the lateral-torsional coupled responses of the tall building were studied comprehensively by structural dynamic analysis. Extensive computational results indicated that the torsional responses at the geometric center of the building may be significantly affected by the eccentricities in the centers of mass and/or rigidity. Covariance responses were found to be in the same order of magnitude as the along-wind or across-wind responses in many eccentricity cases, suggesting that the lateral-torsional coupled effects on the overall wind-induced responses can not be neglected for such situations. The calculated results also demonstrated that the torsional motion contributed significantly to the total responses of rectangular tall buildings with mass and/or rigidity eccentricities. It was shown through this study that the framework presented in this paper provides a useful tool to evaluate the wind-induced lateral-torsional coupled responses of rectangular buildings, which will enable structural engineers in the preliminary design stages to assess the serviceability of tall buildings, potential structural vibration problems and the need for a detailed wind tunnel test.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제12권5호
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• pp.441-455
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• 2009

Studying the spatial distribution in coherent fields such as turbulence and turbulence-induced force is important to model and evaluate turbulence-induced forces and response of structures in the turbulent flows. Turbulence field-based coherence function is commonly used for the spatial distribution characteristic of the turbulence-induced forces in the frequency domain so far. This paper will focus to study spectral coherent structure of the turbulence and induced forces in not only the frequency domain using conventional Fourier transform-based coherence, but also temporo-spectral coherence one in the time-frequency plane thanks to wavelet transform-based coherence for better understanding of the turbulence and force coherences and their spatial distributions. Effects of spanwise separations, bluff body flow, flow conditions and Karman vortex on coherent structures of the turbulence and induced pressure, comparison between turbulence and pressure coherences as well as intermittency of the coherent structure in the time-frequency plane will be investigated here. Some new findings are that not only the force coherence is higher than the turbulence coherence, the coherences of turbulence and forces depend on the spanwise separation as previous studies, but also the coherent structures of turbulence and forces relate to the ongoing turbulence flow and bluff body flow, moreover, intermittency in the time domain and low spectral band is considered as the nature of the coherent structure. Simultaneous measurements of the surface pressure and turbulence have been carried out on some typical rectangular cylinders with slenderness ratios B/D=1 (without and with splitter plate) and B/D=5 under the artificial turbulent flows in the wind tunnel.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제6권6호
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• pp.485-498
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• 2003

This paper presents a mechanical model of Rain-Wind Induced Vibration (RWIV) of stay cables. It is based on the physical interpretation of the phenomenon as given in Cosentino, et al. (2003, referred as Part I). The model takes into account all the main forces acting on cable, on the upper water rivulet (responsible of the excitation) and the cable-rivulet interaction. It is a simplified (cable cross-sectional and deterministic) representation of the actual (stochastic and three-dimensional) phenomenon. The cable is represented by its cross section and it is subjected to mechanical and aerodynamic (considering the rivulet influence) forces. The rivulet is supposed to oscillate along the cable circumference and it is subjected to inertial and gravity forces, pressure gradients and air-water-cable frictions. The model parameters are calibrated by fitting with experimental results. In order to validate the proposed model and its physical basis, different conditions (wind speed and direction, cable frequency, etc.) have been numerically investigated. The results, which are in very good agreement with the RWIV field observations, confirm the validity of the method and its engineering applicability (to evaluate the RWIV sensitivity of new stays or to retrofit the existing ones). Nevertheless, the practical use of the model probably requires a more accurate calibration of some parameters through new and specifically oriented wind tunnel tests.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제26권5호
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• pp.305-315
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• 2018

A numerical study based on a delayed detached eddy simulation (DDES) is conducted to investigate the aerodynamic mechanism behind the suppression of vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) of twin box girders by central grids, which have an inhibition effect on VIVs, as evidenced by the results of section model wind tunnel tests. The mean aerodynamic force coefficients with different attack angles are compared with experimental results to validate the numerical method. Next, the flow structures around the deck and the aerodynamic forces on the deck are analyzed to enhance the understanding of the occurrence of VIVs and the suppression of VIVs by the application of central grids. The results show that shear layers are separated from the upper railings and lower overhaul track of the upstream girder and induce large-scale vortices in the gap that cause periodical lift forces of large amplitude acting on the downstream girder, resulting in VIVs of the bridge deck. However, the VIVs are apparently suppressed by the central grids because the vortices in the central gap are reduced into smaller vortices and become weaker, causing slightly fluctuating lift forces on the deck. In addition, the mean lift force on the deck is mainly caused by the upstream girder, whereas the fluctuating lift force is mainly caused by the downstream girder.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제34권1호
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• pp.91-100
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• 2022

Numerical simulations are conducted to investigate the uniform flow (UF) and sinusoidal streamwise flow (SSF) over an oscillating 5:1 rectangular cylinder with harmonic heaving motion at initial angles of attack of α = 0° and 3° using two-dimensional, unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations. First, the aerodynamic parameters of a stationary 5:1 rectangular cylinder in UF are compared with the previous experimental and numerical data to validate the capability of the computationally efficient two-dimensional URANS simulations. Then, the unsteady flow field and aerodynamic forces of the oscillating 5:1 rectangular cylinder in SSF are analysed and compared with those in UF to explore the effect of SSF on the rectangular cylinder. Results show that the alternative vortex shedding is disturbed by SSF both at α = 0° and 3°, resulting in a considerable decrease in the vortex-induced force, whereas the unsteady lift component induced by cylinder motion remains almost unchanged in the SSF comparing with that in UF. Notably, the strong buffeting forces are observed at α = 3° and the energy associated with unsteady lift is primarily because of the oscillations of SSF. In addition, the components of unsteady lift induced by the coupling effects of SSF and cylinder motion are discussed in detail.