Structural dynamics

An analytical investigation based on the Power Flow Method is presented for the prediction of vibrational Power Flow in simple connected structures subjected to various forms of distributed excitations. The principle of the power flow method consists of dividing the global structure into a series of substructures which can be analyzed independently and then coupled through the boundary conditions. Power flow expressions are derived for an L-shaped plate structure, subjected to any form of distributed mechanical excitation or excited by an acoustic plane wave. In the latter case air loading is considered to have a significant effect on the power input to the structure. Fluid-structure interaction considerations lead to the derivation of a corrected mode shape for the normal velocity, and the determination of the scattered pressure components in the expressions for the Power Flow.

A Power Flow approach, where the vibrational Power Flow is expressed in terms of mobility functions is analytically investigated for simple connected structures. Using a Power Flow approach the global structure is divided into a series of substructures and the vibrational Power Flow between the substructures expressed in terms of input and transfer mobilities. Depending on the type and shape of the junction, line or point mobilities may be used. While in the case of point joints, the mobility functions are only functions of frequency, for line joints the mobility functions are variables of not just the frequency but also of space. In this thesis the application of the Power Flow method is first demonstrated for an L-shaped beam and the method is then extended to the application of a line junction between two plates forming an L-shaped plate. The results obtained in the two cases are compared to results obtained using Finite Element Analysis or Statistical Energy Analysis.

The dynamic behavior of straight cantilever pipes conveying fluid is studied, establishing the conditions of stability for systems, which are only limited to move in a 2D-plane. Internal friction of pipe and the effect of the surrounding fluid are neglected. A universal stability curve showing boundary between the stable and unstable behaviors is constructed by finding solution to equation of motion by exact and high-dimensional approximate methods. Based on the Boobnov-Galerkin method, the critical velocities for the fluid are obtained by using both the eigenfunctions of a cantilever beam (beam functions), as well as the utilization of Duncan's functions. Stability of cantilever pipes with uniform and non-uniform elastic foundations of two types are considered and discussed. Special emphasis is placed on the investigation of the paradoxical behavior previously reported in the literature.

This dissertation deals with the determination of buckling loads of composite cylindrical shell structures which involve uncertainty either in geometry, namely thickness variation, or in material properties. Systematic research has been carried out, which evolves from the simple isotropic cases to anisotropic cases. Since the initial geometric imperfection has a dominant role in the reduction of those imperfection-sensitive structures such as cylindrical shells, the combined effect of thickness variation and initial imperfection is also investigated in depth. Both analytic and numerical methods are used to derive the solutions to the problems and asymptotic formulas relating the buckling load to the geometric (thickness variation and/or initial imperfection) parameter are established. It is shown that the axisymmetric thickness variation has the most detrimental effect on the buckling load when the modal number of thickness variation is twice as much as that of the classical buckling mode. For the composite shells with uncertainty in material properties, the convex modelling is employed to evaluate the variability of buckling load. Based on the experimental data for the elastic moduli of the composite laminates, the upper and lower bounds of the buckling load are derived, which are numerically substantiated by the results from nonlinear programming. These bounds will be useful in practice and can provide engineers with a better view of the real load-carrying capacity of the composite structure. Finally, the elastic modulus is modeled as a function of coordinates to complete the study on variability of material property so that the result can be obtained to account for the situation where the elastic modulus is different from one place to another in the structure.

The objective of the study is to determine the structural response to external force and earthquake excitations with consideration of soil-structure interaction. The physical model concerned herein is an N-story building on a rigid or flexible foundation embedded in a layered soil medium. In this substructure approach, the soil medium and the structure are treated as one-dimensional waveguides and their motions are characterized as wave scattering. To include effects of soil-structure interaction, the foundation response is expressed as a summation of influence functions, which are defined as the response to a simple stress distribution over the contact surface between the soil and foundation. The analysis, therefore, is carried out without solving integral equations. The coupling effect is recovered by using equilibrium, compatibility and reciprocal conditions. As a result, the structural response solution is expressed in terms of parameters of a seismic source and external excitations, and can be used in a statistical analysis if uncertainties of these parameters are taken into account.

This thesis describes a methodology for mechanical fault detection and diagnostics in an ocean turbine using vibration analysis and modeling. This methodology relies on the use of advanced methods for machine vibration analysis and health monitoring. Because of some issues encountered with traditional methods such as Fourier analysis for non stationary rotating machines, the use of more advanced methods such as Time-Frequency Analysis is required. The thesis also includes the development of two LabVIEW models. The first model combines the advanced methods for on-line condition monitoring. The second model performs the modal analysis to find the resonance frequencies of the subsystems of the turbine. The dynamic modeling of the turbine using Finite Element Analysis is used to estimate the baseline of vibration signals in sensors locations under normal operating conditions of the turbine. All this information is necessary to perform the vibration condition monitoring of the turbine.

A computational tool has been developed by integrating National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) codes, Sandia National Laboratories' NuMAD, and ANSYS to investigate a horizontal axis composite ocean current turbine. The study focused on the design, analysis, and life prediction of composite blade considering random ocean current, cyclic rotation, and hurricane-driven ocean current. A structural model for a horizontal axis FAU research OCT blade was developed. Following NREL codes were used: PreCom, BModes, ModeShape, AeroDyn and FAST. PreComp was used to compute section properties of the OCT blade. BModes and ModeShape calculated the mode shapes of the blade. Hydrodynamic loading on the OCT blade was calculated by modifying the inputs to AeroDyn and FAST. These codes were then used to obtain the dynamic response of the blade, including blade tip displacement, normal force (FN) and tangential force (FT), flap and edge bending moment distribution with respect to blade rotation.

This thesis proposes a sensor approach for quantifying the hydrodynamic performance of Ocean Current Turbines (OCT), and investigates the influence of sensor-specific noise and sampling rates on calculated turbine performance. Numerical models of the selected sensors are developed, and then utilized to add stochastic measurement error to numerically-generated, non-stochastic OCT data. Numerically-generated current velocity and turbine performance measurements are used to quantify the relative influence of sensor-specific error and sampling limitations on sensor measurements and calculated OCT performance results. The study shows that the addition of sensor error alters the variance and mean of OCT performance metric data by roughly 7.1% and 0.24%, respectively, for four evaluated operating conditions. It is shown that sensor error results in a mean, maximum and minimum performance metric to Signal to Noise Ration (SNR) of 48.6% and 6.2%, respectively.

Submerged turbines which harvest energy from ocean currents are an important potential energy resource, but their harsh and remote environment demands an automated system for machine condition monitoring and prognostic health monitoring (MCM/PHM). For building MCM/PHM models, vibration sensor data is among the most useful (because it can show abnormal behavior which has yet to cause damage) and the most challenging (because due to its waveform nature, frequency bands must be extracted from the signal). To perform the necessary analysis of the vibration signals, which may arrive rapidly in the form of data streams, we develop three new wavelet-based transforms (the Streaming Wavelet Transform, Short-Time Wavelet Packet Decomposition, and Streaming Wavelet Packet Decomposition) and propose modifications to the existing Short-TIme Wavelet Transform. ... The proposed algorithms also create and select frequency-band features which focus on the areas of the signal most important to MCM/PHM, producing only the information necessary for building models (or removing all unnecessary information) so models can run on less powerful hardware. Finally, we demonstrate models which can work in multiple environmental conditions. ... Our results show that many of the transforms give similar results in terms of performance, but their different properties as to time complexity, ability to operate in a fully streaming fashion, and number of generated features may make some more appropriate than others in particular applications, such as when streaming data or hardware limitations are extremely important (e.g., ocean turbine MCM/PHM).

Ji and Wang (2010) propose that the dominant source of sound from a forward facing step is the stream wise dipole on the face of the step and that sources acting normal to the flow are negligible. Sound radiation normal to flow of forward facing steps has been measured in wind tunnel experiments previously by Farabee and Casarella (1986, 1991) and Catlett (2010). A method for evaluating sound radiation from surface roughness proposed in Glegg and Devenport (2009) has been adapted and applied to flow over a forward facing step which addresses the sound normal to the flow that was previously unaccounted for. Far-field radiation predictions based on this method have been compared with wind tunnel measurements and show good agreement. A second method which evaluates the forcing from a vortex convected past surface roughness using RANS calculations and potential flow information is also evaluated.