Wind Engineering

This textbook is intended to provide an introduction to the cross-disciplinary field of wind engineering. It includes end-of-chapter tutorial sections (solutions manual available) and combines both academic and industrial experience.

This book serves as a textbook for advanced courses as it introduces state-of-the-art information and the latest research results on diverse problems in the structural wind engineering field. The topics include wind climates, design wind speed estimation, bluff body aerodynamics and applications, wind-induced building responses, wind, gust factor approach, wind loads on components and cladding, debris impacts, wind loading codes and standards, computational tools and computational fluid dynamics techniques, habitability to building vibrations, damping in buildings, and suppression of wind-induced vibrations. Graduate students and expert engineers will find the book especially interesting and relevant to their research and work.

How the father of wind engineering helped make the world's most amazing buildings and bridges possible With Wind Wizard, Siobhan Roberts brings us the story of Alan Davenport (1932-2009), the father of modern wind engineering, who investigated how wind navigates the obstacle course of the earth's natural and built environments—and how, when not properly heeded, wind causes buildings and bridges to teeter unduly, sway with abandon, and even collapse. In 1964, Davenport received a confidential telephone call from two engineers requesting tests on a pair of towers that promised to be the tallest in the world. His resulting wind studies on New York's World Trade Center advanced the art and science of wind engineering with one pioneering innovation after another. Establishing the first dedicated "boundary layer" wind tunnel laboratory for civil engineering structures, Davenport enabled the study of the atmospheric region from the earth's surface to three thousand feet, where the air churns with turbulent eddies, the average wind speed increasing with height. The boundary layer wind tunnel mimics these windy marbled striations in order to test models of buildings and bridges that inevitably face the wind when built. Over the years, Davenport's revolutionary lab investigated and improved the wind-worthiness of the world's greatest structures, including the Sears Tower, the John Hancock Tower, Shanghai's World Financial Center, the CN Tower, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, the Sunshine Skyway, and the proposed crossing for the Strait of Messina, linking Sicily with mainland Italy. Chronicling Davenport's innovations by analyzing select projects, this popular-science book gives an illuminating behind-the-scenes view into the practice of wind engineering, and insight into Davenport's steadfast belief that there is neither a structure too tall nor too long, as long as it is supported by sound wind science. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

A fully up-to-date, comprehensive wind energy engineering resource This thoroughly updated reference offers complete details on effectively harnessing wind energy as a viable and economical power source. Globally recognized wind expert Pramod Jain clearly explains physics, meteorology, aerodynamics, wind measurement, wind turbines, and electricity. New energy policies and grid integration procedures are covered, including pre-deployment studies and grid modifications. Filled with diagrams, tables, charts, graphs, and statistics, Wind Energy Engineering, Second Edition, is a definitive guide to current developments and emerging technologies in wind energy. Wind Energy Engineering, Second Edition covers: The worldwide business of wind energy Wind energy basics Meteorological properties of wind and air Wind turbine aerodynamics Turbine blade element models and power curves Wind measurement and reporting Wind resource assessment Advanced resource assessment topics, including wake, losses, and uncertainty Wind turbine generator components Electricity and generator fundamentals Grid integration of wind energy Environmental impact of wind projects Financial modeling, planning, and execution of wind projects Wind energy policy and licensing guidelines

Presenting the latest developments in the field, Wind Energy Systems: Control Engineering Design offers a novel take on advanced control engineering design techniques for wind turbine applications. The book introduces concurrent quantitative engineering techniques for the design of highly efficient and reliable controllers, which can be used to solve the most critical problems of multi-megawatt wind energy systems. This book is based on the authors’ experience during the last two decades designing commercial multi-megawatt wind turbines and control systems for industry leaders, including NASA and the European Space Agency. This work is their response to the urgent need for a truly reliable concurrent engineering methodology for the design of advanced control systems. Outlining a roadmap for such a coordinated architecture, the authors consider the links between all aspects of a multi-megawatt wind energy project, in which the wind turbine and the control system must be cooperatively designed to achieve an optimized, reliable, and successful system. Look inside for links to a free download of QFTCT—a new interactive CAD tool for QFT controller design with MATLAB® that the authors developed with the European Space Agency. The textbook’s big-picture insights can help students and practicing engineers control and optimize a wind energy system, in which large, flexible, aerodynamic structures are connected to a demanding variable electrical grid and work automatically under very turbulent and unpredictable environmental conditions. The book covers topics including robust QFT control, aerodynamics, mechanical and electrical dynamic modeling, economics, reliability, and efficiency. It also addresses standards, certification, implementation, grid integration, and power quality, as well as environmental and maintenance issues. To reinforce understanding, the authors present real examples of experimentation with commercial multi-megawatt direct-drive wind turbines, as well as on-shore, offshore, floating, and airborne wind turbine applications. They also offer a unique in-depth exploration of the quantitative feedback theory (QFT)—a proven, successful robust control technique for real-world applications—as well as advanced switching control techniques that help engineers exceed classical linear limitations.

This book provides an essential overview of wind science and engineering, taking readers on a journey through the origins, developments, fundamentals, recent advancements and latest trends in this broad field. Along the way, it addresses a diverse range of topics, including: atmospheric physics; meteorology; micrometeorology; climatology; the aerodynamics of buildings, aircraft, sailing boats, road vehicles and trains; wind energy; atmospheric pollution; soil erosion; snow drift, windbreaks and crops; bioclimatic city-planning and architecture; wind actions and effects on structures; and wind hazards, vulnerability and risk. In order to provide a comprehensive overview of wind and its manifold effects, the book combines scientific, descriptive and narrative chapters. The book is chiefly intended for students and lecturers, for those who want to learn about the genesis and evolution of this topic, and for the multitude of scholars whose work involves the wind.

This book provides in-depth coverage of the latest research and development activities concerning innovative wind energy technologies intended to replace fossil fuels on an economical basis. A characteristic feature of the various conversion concepts discussed is the use of tethered flying devices to substantially reduce the material consumption per installed unit and to access wind energy at higher altitudes, where the wind is more consistent. The introductory chapter describes the emergence and economic dimension of airborne wind energy. Focusing on “Fundamentals, Modeling & Simulation”, Part I includes six contributions that describe quasi-steady as well as dynamic models and simulations of airborne wind energy systems or individual components. Shifting the spotlight to “Control, Optimization & Flight State Measurement”, Part II combines one chapter on measurement techniques with five chapters on control of kite and ground stations, and two chapters on optimization. Part III on “Concept Design & Analysis” includes three chapters that present and analyze novel harvesting concepts as well as two chapters on system component design. Part IV, which centers on “Implemented Concepts”, presents five chapters on established system concepts and one chapter about a subsystem for automatic launching and landing of kites. In closing, Part V focuses with four chapters on “Technology Deployment” related to market and financing strategies, as well as on regulation and the environment. The book builds on the success of the first volume “Airborne Wind Energy” (Springer, 2013), and offers a self-contained reference guide for researchers, scientists, professionals and students. The respective chapters were contributed by a broad variety of authors: academics, practicing engineers and inventors, all of whom are experts in their respective fields.

This volume contains contributions on the following aspects of wind engineering research: wind-characteristics, exposure, simulation and environment; building aerodynamics, external and internal pressures; full-scale experiments; vehicle aerodynamics and dynamic response; mathematical modelling; aeroelastic instabilities; and more.