Parametric, external and self-excitation of a tower under turbulent wind flow

In this paper the analysis of a self-excited tower under turbulent wind flow is carried out. The structure is considered as a one dof nonlinear system, and the implications of this modeling are deeply discussed. The stationary wind is responsible for self-excitation, while the turbulent part provides both parametric and external excitations. The simultaneous presence of those excitations is taken into account in a specific resonance condition. The periodic and quasi-periodic solutions are studied by means of a perturbation method and the effects of the turbulence on the dynamics of the structure are analyzed.     

On the nonlinear effects of the mean wind force on the galloping onset in shallow cables

Nonlinear Dynamics - The critical aeroelastic behavior of horizontal, suspended, and shallow cables is analyzed via a continuous model accounting for both external and internal damping....     

Structural relaxation of an unentangled polymer in terms of a simple phenomenological approach

The enthalpy relaxation mechanism of a low molecular weight synthesis of polymethylmethacrylate was investigated by means of calorimetric experiments. The data were analyzed in terms of a kinetic approach treating nonlinearity in a different manner with respect to the Tool-Narayanaswamy-Moynihan model. The relaxation isotherms recorded at four different temperatures were well reproduced by this approach that, however, failed in describing the relaxation asymmetry towards the equilibrium after opposite temperature jumps. A modification of the model was proposed with an additional free parameter accounting for the stretching of the relaxation function. In this way all the experimental data were reproduced fairly well.     

Coordination Number of Ternary Mixtures of Spheres†

This paper presents an experimental study of the coordination number of ternary mixtures of particles of sizes 24.4 : 11.6 : 6.4 (mm) by the use of the liquid bridge technique. It generates detailed information about the distributed coordination numbers corresponding to different types of contacts between small, medium and large components. The analysis is focused on the mean coordination numbers corresponding to these contacts. The results indicate that these partial mean coordination numbers vary with the volume fractions of the components while the overall mean coordination number is essentially a constant and independent of particle size distribution.     

3D model of rigid block with a rectangular base subject to pulse-type excitation

A model of 3D rigid body with a rectangular base, able to rock around a side or a vertex of the base is developed. Eccentricity of the center of mass with respect to the geometrical center of the body is also considered. The equations of motion are obtained through the general balance principle. A one-sine pulse base excitation is applied to the body in different directions. The analyses are conducted with the aim to highlight the role of the period, the amplitude and the direction of the external excitation. In significant ranges of the previous parameters, the results obtained with a bi-dimensional model, that does not consider the 3D rocking motions on a vertex of the base, are not in favor of safety. It is found, in fact, that in several conditions the overturning of the 3D block takes place for amplitudes of excitation smaller than those able to overturn the 3D block.     

Enthalpy relaxation of polymers: comparing the predictive power of two configurational entropy models extending the AGV approach

The Tool-Narayanaswamy-Moynihan (TNM) phenomenological model is widely accepted in order to describe the structural relaxation of glasses. However several quantitative discrepancies can be found in the literature that cannot be entirely ascribed to the experimental errors. In this work we compare the predictive power of two recently proposed configurational entropy approaches extending the TNM formalism. Both of them change the treatment of non linearity by adding a free parameter. We use Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) experiments in order to test the models in two different polymers. One of them is a commercial PMMA sample, the other is a side chain liquid crystal azo-benzene polymer properly synthesized for optical nanorecording purposes. Different results were found for the two systems. In the PMMA sample only one of the new models was able to improve the agreement between DSC experiments and theory with respect to the TNM model, whereas in the second polymer both the approaches were able to describe the experiments better than TNM model.Received: 25 February 2004, Published online: 21 October 2004PACS: 64.70.Pf Glass transitions - 61.43.Fs Glasses - 61.41. + e Polymers, elastomers, and plastics     

Galloping of internally resonant towers subjected to turbulent wind

Bifurcation analysis of a structure constituted by two towers, linked by a viscous device at the tip and subjected to turbulent wind, is carried out. The towers have geometrical and mechanical parameters so that the steady part of the wind, whose contribution is evaluated in the framework of the steady theory, induces a 1:1 resonant double-Hopf bifurcation. The turbulent part of the wind, assumed as composed by two frequencies that are equal and double to the main frequency of the unlinked towers, respectively, induces parametric and external harmonic forces. These forces interact with the self-excitation due to the steady part of the wind, bringing imperfection in the bifurcation scenario. Transitions from resonant to non-resonant cases are analyzed in terms of behavior charts, and post-critical dynamics is studied in the space of bifurcation parameters.     

Dynamic instability of inclined cables under combined wind flow and support motion

In this paper an inclined nearly taut stay, belonging to a cable-stayed bridge, is considered. It is subject to a prescribed motion at one end, caused by traveling vehicles, and embedded in a wind flow blowing simultaneously with rain. The cable is modeled as a non-planar, nonlinear, one-dimensional continuum, possessing torsional and flexural stiffness. The lower end of the cable is assumed to undergo a vertical sinusoidal motion of given amplitude and frequency. The wind flow is assumed uniform in space and constant in time, acting on the cable along which flows a rain rivulet. The imposed motion is responsible for both external and parametric excitations, while the wind flow produces aeroelastic instability. The relevant equations of motion are discretized via the Galerkin method, by taking one in-plane and one out-of-plane symmetric modes as trial functions. The two resulting second-order, non-homogeneous, time-periodic, ordinary differential equations are coupled and contain quadratic and cubic nonlinearities, both in the displacements and velocities. They are tackled by the Multiple Scale perturbation method, which leads to first-order amplitude-phase modulation equations, governing the slow dynamics of the cable. The wind speed, the amplitude of the support motion and the internal and external frequency detunings are set as control parameters. Numerical path-following techniques provide bifurcation diagrams as functions of the control parameters, able to highlight the interactions between in-plane and out-of-plane motions, as well as the effects of the simultaneous presence of the three sources of excitation.