Fitness-for-purpose assessment of cracked offshore wind turbine monopile

In this paper, the procedure for flaw acceptability assessment is examined through a case study of a semi-elliptical surface crack in an offshore monopile as it grows till it forms a through thickness crack. Using the procedure prescribed in an industrial standard (BS 7910), the fracture ratio, K_r is shown to increase monotonically with increasing crack depth. The load ratio, L_r, is initially insensitive to the crack depth. However, there is a rapid increase in L_r when the crack depth to thickness ratio exceeds 80%. L_r values obtained from detailed 3D FE limit analysis using elastic-perfectly-plastic material behaviour do not exhibit the asymptotic behaviour predicted by BS 7910 as the flaw transitions from deep crack to through-thickness crack. Furthermore, K_r predicted by BS 7910 is shown to be an over-estimation for the typical dimensions of offshore monopiles. The findings suggest that a structure with a deep flaw may be identified as unacceptable based on BS 7910 when it may still possess a non-trivial amount of structural residual life. This is a concern for monopiles where crack growth as a large flaw forms a significant part of the total life.     

挂篮底模纵梁受力简化计算方法及承重分配系数

以一桥梁施工工程实例为依托,采用有限元软件ANSYS对桥梁悬臂施工中使用的菱形挂篮进行仿真分析.提出3种简化模式计算底模纵梁的承重分配,对比发现将底模纵梁承受的外荷载简化为集中荷载,并分配至挂篮下前后横梁的方法是最优简化计算方法.在此基础上对挂篮底模纵梁承重分配系数进行优化,从而简化了繁琐的挂篮底模纵梁受力分析计算,保证了挂篮结构设计和施工的安全.     

Simulation on progressive collapse behaviour of whole ship model under extreme waves using idealized structural unit method

To ensure the safety of navigating ship, working loads and structural load-carrying capacity are two important aspects. In the present paper, a total simulation system combing load calculation and structural collapse analysis is applied to simulate progressive collapse behaviour of a single-hull Kamsarmax type bulk carrier. A three dimensional singularity distribution method is adopted to calculate pressure distribution with time history. A mixed structural model, collapse part simulated by ISUM elements and remaining part by elastic FEM elements with relative coarse mesh, is proposed for collapse analysis. Progressive collapse behaviour obtained by ISUM is good agreement with that by nonlinear software package, MARC. However, the calculation time of ISUM analysis is about 1/70 of MARC analysis. The applicability to structure system, high accuracy and sufficient efficiency of ISUM had been demonstrated.     

A multi-spring model for monopile analysis in soft clays

The offshore wind industry in China has seen a rapid development in recent years and is projected to account for half of global yearly installed capacity in the years to come. Monopiles are a popular foundation solution for supporting offshore wind turbines. However, due to challenging seabed soil conditions, which often feature thick normally consolidated soft clays and harsh environmental loading (i.e. frequent occurrence of typhoons), extremely long monopiles are often designed. The large monopiles are costly to fabricate and install and sometimes kills the viability of the concept in cases where the bedrock is relatively shallow and expensive piling in rock is otherwise required. However, the state-of-practice for designing these monopiles in clays is typically by using the API p-y springs, which are widely known to underestimate soil-pile interaction stiffness and capacity for large diameter monopiles. Improvement to the design method can therefore have significant economic implications to the industry. The paper presents an effort toward this direction. A multi-spring beam-column model suitable for monopile design in soil conditions in China is proposed. The model features three soil spring components, namely the lateral p-y spring, the pile tip base shear s-y spring and rotational m-θ springs along the pile shaft. The validity of the model is verified by a comprehensive suite finite element parametric analyses. Guidance for incorporating the cyclic loading effect into design is also provided. The model proposed in this paper has large potentials for application in design practice.     

内压载荷下X80管道裂纹应力分布规律研究

为了研究内压作用下管道裂纹应力场分布规律,以含有表面裂纹的X80管道为研究对象,对不同形状、不同方向、不同内压、不同尺寸的含裂纹管道进行仿真分析和实验验证。结果表明:裂纹尖端处应力远大于裂纹中心应力。裂纹形状对应力影响作用较小,随着裂纹方向与管道轴向夹角增大,裂纹尖端应力先增大后减小,随着管道内压、裂纹深度、裂纹长度的增大,裂纹尖端处应力随之线性增大。其中,裂纹长度对裂纹尖端应力的影响小于管道内压和裂纹深度。     

格拉斯磁环匀强磁场分析

以毕奥-萨伐尔定律为基础,建立亥姆霍兹线圈以及格拉斯磁环中心磁场分布模型,并计算了它们内部的轴向磁感应强度分布,绘出了空间分布图,分析了轴向磁感应强度与x、y坐标的关系,分析结果得到了亥姆霍兹线圈和格拉斯磁环内部匀强磁场分布区域,通过比较得到格拉斯磁环内部的匀强磁场区域比亥姆霍兹线圈内部的匀强磁场分布区域更大的结论。     

A copula-based approach for estimating the travel time reliability of urban arterial

Estimating the travel time reliability (TTR) of urban arterial is critical for real-time and reliable route guidance and provides theoretical bases and technical support for sophisticated traffic management and control. The state-of-art procedures for arterial TTR estimation usually assume that path travel time follows a certain distribution, with less consideration about segment correlations. However, the conventional approach is usually unrealistic because an important feature of urban arterial is the dependent structure of travel times on continuous segments. In this study, a copula-based approach that incorporates the stochastic characteristics of segments travel time is proposed to model arterial travel time distribution (TTD), which serves as a basis for TTR quantification. First, segments correlation is empirically analyzed and different types of copula models are examined. Then, fitting marginal distributions for segment TTD is conducted by parametric and non-parametric regression analysis, respectively. Based on the estimated parameters of the models, the best-fitting copula is determined in terms of the goodness-of-fit tests. Last, the model is examined at two study sites with AVI data and NGSIM trajectory data, respectively. The results of path TTD estimation demonstrate the advantage of the proposed copula-based approach, compared with the convolution model without capturing segments correlation and the empirical distribution fitting methods. Furthermore, when considering the segments correlation effect, it was found that the estimated path TTR is more accurate than that by the convolution model.     

A design method of tensile triangles and low transformation temperature weld metal for reduction of stress concentration and residual stress of welded joints

Stress concentration and residual stress have a significant influence on fatigue life of welded joints. In order to reduce the stress concentration of welded joints, a mathematical design method of tensile triangles (MTT) based on bionics was applied to weld shape design. Accordingly, the stress concentration of various weld beads in the corner boxing welded joint and the fillet welded T-joint was dissected using our in-house FEM software JWRIAN. It was found that there existed a large stress concentration in the conventional welded joints, whereas those welded joints with elongated weld bead were accompanied by a lower stress concentration, especially for elongated weld bead with MTT design. Furthermore, among the weld shapes of the corner boxing fillet welded joint, the rectangle shape of weld bead had the minimum stress concentration factor (1.05). For the fillet welded T-joint with MTT design, the stress concentration of weld toe decreased dramatically with the increase of the index of designed shape, but there was a minor difference of stress concentration at weld root between the weld beads with MTT design. In addition, application of low transformation temperature (LTT) weld metal utilizing martensitic transformation to the fillet welded T-joints can produce compressive residual stress at weld toe.     

舰船加筋板局部强度评估中的总纵应力折减系数研究

舰船加强筋尺寸的合理确定一直是结构设计中的热点问题。本文综合考虑总纵弯曲应力和局部载荷的相互作用,研究加强筋的许用应力折减系数(C_s)的影响因素与合理取值方法。通过分析加强筋的力学模型、对比不同规范中的C_s取值,以及用非线性有限元软件Abaqus计算一系列加筋板模型,拟合C_s曲线并与规范对比,并验证剖面对称性和局部载荷作用方向对C_s取值的影响方式,丰富了舰船局部强度校核方法的技术背景,为板架设计、舰船三维局部校核程序开发提供借鉴。