Effects of corner cuts and angles of attack on the Strouhal number of rectangular cylinders

Choi, Chang-Koon,Kwon, Dae-Kun Techno-Press 2003 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.6 No.2

An investigation into the effect of corner cuts on the Strouhal number of rectangular cylinders with various dimensional ratios and various angles of attack is described. The Strouhal number given as a function of corner cut size is obtained directly from the aerodynamic behavior of the body in a uniform flow through a series of wind-induced vibration tests. For a quick verification of the validity of the Strouhal numbers obtained in this way, they are compared with the approximated the Strouhal numbers based on Shiraishi's early research. The test results show that the Strouhal number of the model with various corner cuts has a fluctuating trend as the angle of attack changes. For each cutting ratio as the angle of attack increases at each cutting ratio above $15^{\circ}$, the Strouhal number decreases gradually, and these trends are more evident for larger corner cut sizes. However, a certain corner cut size which is effective in reducing the wind-induced vibration can be identified by larger Strouhal numbers than those of other corner cut sizes. Three distinct characteristics of Strouhal number variation can be identified in three regions which are termed as Region I, II, and III based on the general trend of the test results. It is also found that the corner cut is effective in one region (Region-II) and less effective in another one (Region-III) when only the vortex-induced vibration occurs.

Transition membrane elements with drilling freedom for local mesh refinements

Choi, Chang-Koon,Lee, Wan-Hoon Techno-Press 1995 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.3 No.1

A transition membrane element designated as CLM which has variable mid-side nodes with drilling freedoms has been presented in this paper. The functional for the linear problem, in which the drilling rotations are introduced as independent variables, has been formulated. The transition elements with variable side nodes can be efficiently used in the local mesh refinement for the in-plane structures, which have stress concentrations. A modified Gaussian quadrature is needed to be adopted to evaluate the stiffness matrices of these transition elements mainly due to the slope discontinuity of displacement within the elements. Detailed numerical studies show the excellent performance of the new transition elements developed in this study.

Simulation of wind process by spectral representation method and application to cooling tower shell

Choi, Chang-Koon,Noh, Hyuk-Chun Techno-Press 1999 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.2 No.2

The various spectral density functions of wind are applied in the wind process simulation by the spectral representation method. In view of the spectral density functions, the characteristics of the simulated processes are compared. The ensemble spectral density functions constructed from the simulated sample processes are revealed to have the similarity not only in global shape but also in the maximum values with the target spectral density functions with a high accuracy. For the correlation structure to be satisfied in the circumferential direction on the cooling tower shell, a new formula is suggested based on the mathematical expression representing the circumferential distribution of the wind pressure on the cooling tower shell. The simulated wind processes are applied in the dynamic analysis of cooling tower shell in the time domain and the fluctuating stochastic behavior of the cooling tower shell is investigated.

Elasto-plastic nonconforming solid element with variable nodes

Choi, Chang-Koon,Chung, Gi-Taek Techno-Press 1995 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.3 No.4

The iterative procedure to use the nonconforming elements in elasto-plastic problems is established and applied to the variable node transition solid element developed for the automated three-dimensional local mesh refinement. Through numerical tests, the validity and performance of the element are examined. As the nonlinear iterative procedure presented in this paper is accomplished for the general three-dimensional case, it can also be easily applied to the two-dimensional elements such as membranes, plates and shells.

Wind tunnel blockage effects on aerodynamic behavior of bluff body

Choi, Chang-Koon,Kwon, Dae-Kun Techno-Press 1998 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.1 No.4

In wind tunnel experiments, the blockage effect is a very important factor which affects the test results significantly. A number of investigations into this problem, especially on the blockage correction of drag coefficient, have been carried out in the past. However, only a limited number of works have been reported on the wind tunnel blockage effect on wind-induced vibration although it is considered to be fairly important. This paper discusses the aerodynamic characteristics of the square model and square model with corner cut based on a series of the wind tunnel tests with various blockage ratios and angles of attack. From the test results, the aerodynamic behavior of square models with up to 10% blockage ratio are almost the same and square models with up to 10% blockage ratio can be tested as a group which behaves similarly.

An efficient four node degenerated shell element based on the assumed covariant strain

Choi, Chang-Koon,Paik, Jong-Gyun Techno-Press 1994 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.2 No.1

This paper proposes a new four node degenerated shell element. In the formulation of the new element, the assumed covariant shear strains are used to avoid the shear locking problem, and the assumed covariant membrane strains are applied to alleviate the membrane locking problem and also to improve the membrane bending performance. The assumed covariant strains are obtained from the covariant strain field defined with respect to the element natural coordinate system. This formulation enables us to obtain a shell element, which does not produce spurious singular modes, avoids locking phenomena, and excels in calculation efficiency. Several examples in this paper indicate that, despite its simplicity, the achieved accuracy and convergence are satisfactory.

Variable-node axisymmetric solid element and its application to adaptive mesh refinement

Choi, Chang-Koon,Lee, Eun-Jin,Lee, Wan-Hoon Techno-Press 2001 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.11 No.4

This paper presents an effective application of a variable-node axisymmetric solid element designated as AQV (Axisymmetric Quadrilateral Variable-node element). The variable-node element with physical midside nodes helps to overcome some problems in connecting the different layer patterns on a quadrilateral mesh in the adaptive h-refinement. This element alleviates the necessity of imposing displacement constraints on irregular (hanging) nodes in order to enforce the inter-element compatibility. Therefore, the elements with variable mid-side nodes can be used effectively in the local mesh refinement for the axisymmetric structures which have stress concentrations. A modified Gaussian quadrature should be adopted to evaluate the stiffness matrices of the variable-node elements mainly because of the slope discontinuity of assumed displacement within the elements. Some numerical examples show the usefulness of variable-node axisymmetric elements in the practical application.

Adaptive finite element wind analysis with mesh refinement and recovery

Choi, Chang-Koon,Yu, Won-Jin Techno-Press 1998 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.1 No.1

This paper deals with the development of variable-node element and its application to the adaptive h-version mesh refinement-recovery for the incompressible viscous flow analysis. The element which has variable mid-side nodes can be used in generating the transition zone between the refined and unrefined element and efficiently used for the construction of a refined mesh without generating distorted elements. A modified Guassian quadrature is needed to evaluate the element matrices due to the discontinuity of derivatives of the shape functions used for the element. The penalty function method which can reduce the number of the independent variables is adopted for the purpose of computational efficiency and the selective reduced integration is carried out for the convection and pressure terms to preserve the stability of solution. For the economical analysis of transient problems in which the locations to be refined are changed in accordance with the dynamic distribution of velocity gradient, not only the mesh refinement but also the mesh recovery is needed. The numerical examples show that the optimal mesh for the finite element analysis of a wind around the structures can be obtained automatically by the proposed scheme.

A new ALE finite element techniques for wind-structure interactions

Choi, Chang-Koon,Yu, Won-Jin Techno-Press 2000 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.3 No.4

A new finite element technique to solve the problem of wind and structure interactions is presented. Conventionally, wind analysis is performed on the Eulerian description in which the finite element mesh would not move in accordance with the wind flow. However, it is not the case in wind-structure interaction problems because nodes attached to the surface of structure should move with the displacement of structure. The arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method treats the mesh and flow independently, and allow the mesh to move. In this study, the analysis domain is divided into regions of the structure, air around the structure and the interface of two regions. To satisfy the compatibility and equilibrium conditions between separated regions and to carry out the efficient analysis, the rigid link is used. Also the equation of wind and that of structure are arranged in a single matrix equation.

An adaptive control of spatial-temporal discretization error in finite element analysis of dynamic problems

Choi, Chang-Koon,Chung, Heung-Jin Techno-Press 1995 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.3 No.4

The application of adaptive finite element method to dynamic problems is investigated. Both the kinetic and strain energy errors induced by space and time discretization were estimated in a consistent manner and controlled by the simultaneous use of the adaptive mesh generation and the automatic time stepping. Also an optimal ratio of spatial discretization error to temporal discretization error was discussed. In this study it was found that the best performance can be obtained when the specified spatial and temporal discretization errors have the same value. Numerical examples are carried out to verify the performance of the procedure.