Mean and Peak Wind Loads on Heliostats

1989 ◽  
Vol 111 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Peterka ◽  
Z. Tan ◽  
J. E. Cermak ◽  
B. Bienkiewicz

Mean and peak wind loads on flat rectangular or circular heliostats were measured on models in a boundary layer wind tunnel which included an atmospheric surface layer simulation. Horizontal and vertical forces, moments about horizontal axes at the ground level and at the centerline of the heliostat, and the moment about the vertical axis through the heliostat center were measured. Results showed that loads are higher than predicted from results obtained in a uniform, low-turbulence flow due to the presence of turbulence. Reduced wind loads were demonstrated for heliostats within a field of heliostats and upper bound curves were developed to provide preliminary design coefficients.

MAUSAM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-290
Author(s):  
S. SIVARAMAKRISHNAN

A system of Honeycomb Flat Plate (HFP) grid and cylindrical rods has been developed to accelerate the growth of a thick (32 cm) turbulent boundary layer, artificially, over rough floor of a low speed short test-section (0.61 m x 0.61 m) wind tunnel. Simulated profiles of wind velocity, longitudinal turbulence intensity and Reynolds stress are shown to have similarity to those of a neutral atmospheric boundary layer over a typical rural terrain. Longitudinal spectrum of turbulence measured at 10,30 and 100 mm above tunnel floor is shown to compare well with atmospheric spectrum and agree closely with the Kolmogoroff's -2/3 law in the inertial sub-range of the spectrum. Based on the length scale of longitudinal turbulence estimated from the spectrum, a scale of 1 :900 has been proposed for laboratory modeling of environmental problems wherein the transport of mass in a neutral atmospheric surface layer IS solely due to eddies of mechanical origin.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zana Sulaiman

Abstract This paper presents the results of wind load computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations performed on the topside structures of a self-propelled wind turbine installation jack-up. The CFD calculations were performed for the jack-up topside structures with and without the deck load. An atmospheric boundary layer profile was applied for the model-scale calculations. The full range of heading angles was considered. The CFD results were validated through comparison with the wind tunnel tests which were carried out at the German-Dutch wind tunnels (DNW) in Marknesse, The Netherlands. Moreover, a comparison is presented between the applied boundary layer profiles throughout the CFD computational domain with those profiles measured in the wind tunnel. The CFD results were found to be in good agreement with the wind tunnel tests for the considered cases, verifying the feasibility of the CFD method as an important design tool for the prediction of wind loads during the design processes of these types of jack-ups.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 2217-2226 ◽  
Author(s):  
YC Kim ◽  
Y Tamura ◽  
A Yoshida ◽  
T Ito ◽  
W Shan ◽  
...  

The general characteristics of aerodynamic vibrations of a solar wing system were investigated through wind tunnel tests using an aeroelastic model under four oncoming flows. In total, 12 solar panels were suspended by cables and orientated horizontally. Distances between panels were set constant. Tests showed that the fluctuating displacement increases proportionally to the square of the mean wind speed for all wind directions in boundary-layer flows. Larger fluctuating displacements were found for boundary-layer flows with larger power-law indices. Under low-turbulence flow, the fluctuating displacement increased proportionally to the square of the mean wind speed for wind directions between 0° and 30°, but an instability vibration was observed at high mean wind speed for wind directions larger than 40°. And when the wind direction was larger than 60°, a limited vibration was observed at low mean wind speed and the instability vibration was also observed at high mean wind speed. Fluctuating displacements under grid-generated flow showed a similar trend to that of the boundary-layer flows, although the values became much smaller.


Author(s):  
Astha Verma ◽  
Ashok Kumar Ahuja

Wind is one of the important loads to be considered while designing the roofs of low-rise buildings. The structural designers refer to relevant code of practices of various countries dealing with wind loads while designing building roofs. However, available information regarding wind pressure coefficients on cylindrical roofs is limited to single span only. Information about wind pressure coefficients on multi-span cylindrical roofs is not available in standards on wind loads. Present paper describes the details of the experimental study carried out on the models of low-rise buildings with multi-span cylindrical roofs in an open circuit boundary layer wind tunnel. Wind pressure values are measured at many pressure points made on roof surface of the rigid models under varying wind incidence angles. Two cases namely, single-span and two-span are considered. The experimental results are presented in the form of contours of mean wind pressure coefficients. Results presented in the paper are of great use for the structural designers while designing buildings with cylindrical roofs. These values can also be used by the experts responsible for revising wind loading codes from time to time.


Author(s):  
Daniel Barcarolo ◽  
Yann Andrillon ◽  
Erwan Jacquin ◽  
Alain Ledoux

The accurate evaluation of wind loads applied on floating offshore structures is extremely important as they are in specific conditions one of the dimensioning criteria for the mooring design. Nowadays these loads are mainly assessed through wind tunnel tests performed at model scale. Estimating realistic wind loads however, remains a big challenge. The complexity and associated simplification level of FPSO topside structures, the scale effects and the establishment of the atmospheric boundary layer imply that many simplifications are to be made. Typically, the FPSO topside is greatly simplified and equivalent blocs of wired frame are used. Today with the evolution of CFD software, and the increase of the meshing capacity, new scopes open to CFD. Aerodynamic simulations on complex FPSO structures are therefore now possible, but need specific developments and validations that are presented in this paper. The main objective of the work presented is to investigate the ability of CFD to evaluate wind loads on complex FPSOs topsides and to provide information on the impact of model simplifications made in wind tunnels. In a first stage, the numerical model was intensively validated by comparing its results to a wind tunnel test case. The numerical model was developed in order to ensure the quality of the results and enable a relevant comparison that was obtained with grids density up to 30 million cells. For this purpose, the geometric model used corresponds to the one used in wind tunnel. The same Atmospheric Boundary Layer was simulated and a thorough effort was performed to ensure the mesh convergence. In a second stage, more physical aspects of the wind tunnel methodology were investigated. Typically the accuracy of the blockage effect correction was evaluated by performing computations with and without blockage, and results were compared with classical corrections applied in wind tunnel. The impacts of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer on wind loads have also been investigated. Finally, the wind load contribution of each component of the FPSO was evaluated.


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