Abstract
Modern design of long suspension bridges must satisfy at the same time spanning very long
distances and limiting their response against several external loads, even if of high intensity. Structural
Control, with the solutions it provides, can offer a reliable contribution to limit internal forces and
deformations in structural elements when extreme events occur. This positive aspect is very interesting when
the dimensions of the structure are large. Herein, an updated numerical model of an existing suspension
bridge is developed in a commercial finite element work frame, starting from original data. This model is
used to reevaluate an optimization procedure for a passive control strategy, already proven effective with a
simplified model of the buffeting wind forces. Such optimization procedure, previously implemented with a
quasi-steady model of the buffeting excitation, is here reevaluated adopting a more refined version of the
wind-structure interaction forces in which wind actions are applied on the towers and the cables considering
drag forces only. For the deck a more refined formulation, based on the use of indicial functions, is adopted
to reflect coupling with the bridge orientation and motion. It is shown that there is no variation of the
previously identified optimal passive configuration.
Abstract
The latest developments in topology optimization are integrated with Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD) for the conceptual design of building structures. The wind load on a building is simulated
using CFD, and the structural response of the building is obtained from finite element analysis under the
wind load obtained. Multiple wind directions are simulated within a single fluid domain by simply
expanding the simulation domain. The bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) algorithm
with a scheme of material interpolation is extended for an automatic building topology optimization
considering multiple wind loading cases. The proposed approach is demonstrated by a series of examples of
optimum topology design of perimeter bracing systems of high-rise building structures.
Address
Jiwu Tang, Yi Min Xie : Centre for Innovative Structures and Materials, School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering,RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne 3001, Australia
Peter Felicetti:Felicetti Pty Ltd Consulting Engineers, 4/145 Russell Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia
Abstract
The evaluation of pressure fields acting on slender structures under wind loads is currently performed in experimental aerodynamic tests. For wind-sensitive structures, in fact, the knowledge of global and local wind actions is crucial for design purpose. This paper considers a particular slender structure under wind excitation, representative of most common high-rise buildings, whose experimental wind field on in-scale model was measured in the CRIACIV boundary-layer wind tunnel (University of Florence) for several angles of attack of the wind. It is shown that an efficient reduced model to represent structural response can be obtained by coupling the classical structural modal projection with the so called blowing modes projection, obtained by decomposing the covariance or power spectral density (PSD) wind tensors. In particular, the elaboration of experimental data shows that the first few blowing modes can effectively represent the wind-field when eigenvectors of the PSD tensor are used, while a significantly larger number of blowing modes is required when the covariance wind tensor is used to decompose the wind field.
Abstract
For a building with a dominant windward wall opening, the wind-induced internal pressure
response can be described by a second-order non-linear differential equation. However, there are two
ill-defined parameters in the governing equation: the inertial coefficient CI and the loss coefficient CL.
Lack of knowledge of these two parameters restricts the practical use of the governing equation. This study
was primarily focused on finding an accurate reference value for CI, and the paper presents a systematic
investigation of the factors influencing the inertial coefficient for a wind-tunnel model building including:
opening configuration and location, wind speed and direction, approaching flow turbulence, the model
material, and the installation method. A numerical model was used to simulate the volume deformation
under internal pressure, and to predict the bulk modulus of an experimental model. In considering the
structural flexibility, an alternative approach was proposed to ensure accurate internal volume distortions, so
that similarity of internal pressure responses between model-scale and full-scale building was maintained.
The research showed 0.8 to be a reasonable standard value for the inertial coefficient.
Abstract
Flow around a small white fir tree was investigated with varying the length of the bottom trunk (hereafter referred to as bottom gap). The velocity fields around the tree, which was placed in a closed-type wind tunnel test section, were quantitatively measured using particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. Three different flow regions are observed behind the tree due to the bottom gap effect. Each flow region exhibits a different flow structure as a function of the bottom gap ratio. Depending on the gap ratio, the aerodynamic porosity of the tree changes and the different turbulence structure is induced. As the gap ratio increases, the maximum turbulence intensity is increased as well. However, the location of the local maximum turbulence intensity is nearly invariant. These changes in the flow and turbulence structures around a tree due to the bottom gap variation significantly affect the shelter effect of the tree. The wind-speed reduction is increased and the height of the maximum wind-speed reduction is decreased, as the gap ratio decreases.
Key Words
windbreak; white fir tree; shelter effect; wind tunnel; PIV
Address
Jin-Pyung Lee:School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea
Eui-Jae Lee and Sang-Joon Lee:Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 790-784, Korea
