(AGENPARL) – MIAMI mer 15 marzo 2023

“This is going to revolutionize wind tunnel testing,” said James Ricles, the Bruce G. Johnston Professor of Structural Engineering at Lehigh University, principal investigator of research at Lehigh’s Real-Time Multi-Directional Hybrid Simulation of Wind Experimental Facility and an expert in cyber-physical simulation of civil infrastructural systems subjected to natural hazards. “It’s impossible to bring a skyscraper into the laboratory, so we are linking a model in a computer with a physical model in the laboratory to obtain the most accurate results possible.”

In the cyber-physical test, a building model about the height of a mailbox records wind surface pressures, which are difficult to replicate in a purely cyber experiment. Then, the wind pressures are exerted onto the cyber model, representing a full-fledged building, and communicated back to the model in the laboratory about how the building should be expected to sway. Actuators attached to the building model at the Wall of Wind adjust the building’s position accordingly.

The pressure on one side of the building can affect how the whole structure sways, making these adjustments essential to understand how these buildings behave in real life. The wind speed, like the size of the building, is also scaled in the simulation. In the Wall of Wind, the wind speed increases up to 21.5 miles per hour, equaling a scaled-up wind speed in the simulation of 230 miles per hour.

While studying skyscrapers, the researchers are exploring how dampers, which are typically used for reducing vibrations in buildings, can best mitigate the negative effect of swaying.

After validating the testing method and completing recommendations for improving skyscrapers, the research team plans to study how hurricane-force winds affect other large civil infrastructural systems, such as transmission lines, wind turbines and long-span bridges.

Contributors to the research include Elawady, Ricles, Lehigh research scientists Liang Cao and Thomas Marullo, FIU Ph.D. candidate researcher Haitham Mohamed and Wall of Wind research scientist James Erwin. 

Fonte/Source: https://news.fiu.edu/2023/fiu-and-lehigh-university-expand-capabilities-of-wind-tunnel-testing-using-innovative-cyber-physical-method?utm_source=main&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=newsroom-referrals&utm_term=homepage