Aeroelastic Real-Time Hybrid Simulation. I: Validation

Abstract

An innovative experimental method, called aeroelastic real-time hybrid simulation (aeroRTHS), is proposed to study the aerodynamic vibrations of a building model in a boundary layer wind tunnel (BLWT). The aeroRTHS method aims to capture the dynamic interactions between an aeroelastic structure and the applied wind load to accurately characterize complicated, unstable phenomena such as vortex-induced vibration, and in doing so, to broaden the application of real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) from seismic applications to wind engineering. The aeroRTHS tests were conducted in the BLWT at the University of Florida Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure Equipment Facility (UF NHERI EF). A 1-m-tall rigid physical model with an aspect ratio (height/width) of 7.3 was mounted on a modified single-axis shake table converting translational motions to corresponding rotations at the base of the model allowing the model to behave in the wind tunnel as an aeroelastic structure. A total of 128 pressure sensors located on the cross-wind sides of the physical building model measured wind pressures which then were converted to equivalent forces and ultimately resolved into a single equivalent force at the top of the physical building model based on the moment equilibrium at its base. The results from a series of aeroRTHS tests in the BLWT are reported herein to constitute a proof-of-concept study that validates the aeroRTHS method and demonstrates the aeroelastic effects on a flexible and slender structure.