Research and Development of Viscous Fluid Dampers for Improvement of Seismic Resistance of Thermal Power Plants: Part 9 — Investigation Regarding Damage Between Furnace and Cage

Boilers in coal-fired thermal power plants were often damaged by earthquakes such as the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. Since the coal-fired thermal power generation has been one of the main power generation methods after the Great East Japan Earthquake, mitigation of damage of boilers in thermal power plants by earthquakes is the very important subject in order to recover our daily life immediately after strong earthquakes. Meanwhile, a boiler in a coal-fired thermal power plant was damaged by Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake in 2018, and this damage was one of the causes of Hokkaido’s prefecture-wide blackout. According to a report by an electric power company, a damage occurred between a furnace and a cage of the boiler. In general, lengths, shapes, weights and so on of a furnace are different from a cage, so vibration characteristics and seismic response are different as well. Thus the connecting part between the furnace and the cage is a weak point in the boiler, and the damages often occurred there. Therefore this paper investigates seismic response of a boiler by a numerical analysis using a frame model from the viewpoint of the damage of the furnace and the cage. Various seismic waves were used as input waves in order to investigate the influence of the input wave. A result of a modal analysis was also provided in this paper.

Research and Development of Viscous Fluid Dampers for Improvement of Seismic Resistance of Thermal Power Plants: Part 5 — Influence of Damper Properties on Lifetime

In 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake that is the largest earthquake ever observed in Japan occurred. The earthquake had large energy, long duration and many aftershocks, and coal-fired thermal power plants were damaged by the earthquake [1]. Boiler structures in coal-fired thermal power plants are generally high-rise structures, and boilers are simply suspended from the top of the support structures in order to allow thermal expansion, so boilers easily vibrate [2]. In order to suppress vibration of boilers during earthquakes, stoppers are generally set between boilers and support structures. The stoppers are made of steel, and dissipate vibration energy by plastic deformation. However aseismic requirements for thermal power plants have been increased as a result of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Thus authors have developed a vibration control damper for coal-fired power plants. The damper is set instead of conventional stopper. Construction of the damper is similar to oil dampers, but inner fluid is viscous fluid. In PVP 2017, the basic performance of the proposed damper was presented [3–5]. In this paper, influence of damper properties on lifetime of the damper was investigated by seismic response analyses. In addition, lifetime of dampers for long period and long duration earthquake waves were investigated by seismic response analyses.

Validation of GenEcAm Software Results in Simulation of Seismic Behavior of Buildings Equipped with Damping System

This paper presents the validation process of the GenEcAm program made by the author by comparing the results obtained with this program with the results obtained with the SAP2000 program at the dynamic analysis of a P+10E building equipped with viscous fluid dampers, one on each facade on each level. The results obtained with these two programs are very close, which validates the correctness of the analytical and computational model that underpinned the creation of the GenEcAm program. The GenEcAm program allows the use of 9 theoretical models of hysteresis to simulate seismic behavior of the dampers that equippe the structure of a building.

Research and Development of Viscous Fluid Dampers for Improvement of Seismic Resistance of Thermal Power Plants: Part 1 — Fundamental Analysis and Component Test

In 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake that is the largest earthquake ever observed occurred. The earthquake had large energy, huge tsunami, long duration time and many aftershocks. Devastated area needed retrieval and revival. However, when electric power was lost, the retrieval delayed. It is necessary to improve seismic proof construction for power plants. In this paper, authors proposed vibration control by adding dampers for coal-fired power plant and developed it. Fundamental analysis and component test of the damper were conducted. As the analytical results, characteristic of the damper was searched what kind of performance is more effective for the coal-fired power plants. In the component test, actual scaled prototype of the developed damper was produced and its performance was checked by loading test. As the test results, suitable characteristic of the damper was searched by the analysis. Finally, authors proposed two analytical methods of the developed damper.

Seismic fragility analysis of adjacent inelastic structures connected with viscous fluid dampers

Many scholars have conducted vibration control analysis on adjacent structures, so far. However, most of the previous studies always focus on the elastic analysis of the structures which usually can’t meet the multi-level seismic targets of structural safety and using function, and often ignore the adverse effects of near-field earthquakes. In view of the limitations of elastic vibration control analysis, two-dimensional models of some adjacent inelastic reinforced concrete frame structures which are connected with the viscous fluid dampers (modeled by Maxwell model) were set up, and incremental dynamic analysis was conducted under 20 near-field and 20 far-field seismic waves to get the entire seismic response process. The seismic fragility curves of the adjacent structures which were controlled and uncontrolled were obtained. The applicability of the Maxwell damper optimum parameter expressions under different seismic performance levels was studied and the differences of seismic response of the adjacent structures under the far-field and near-field earthquakes were compared. Finally, through a large number of parametric analysis and based on the principle of minimum seismic fragility of the adjacent structures, the appropriate damping values of the Maxwell dampers which show preferable control effects under different seismic waves and seismic intensities were proposed.

Passive Control System for Mitigation of Longitudinal Buffeting Responses of a Six-Tower Cable-Stayed Bridge

This paper presents an investigation of mitigation of longitudinal buffeting responses of the Jiashao Bridge, the longest multispan cable-stayed bridge in the world. A time-domain procedure for analyzing buffeting responses of the bridge is implemented in ANSYS with the aeroelastic effect included. The characteristics of longitudinal buffeting responses of the six-tower cable-stayed bridge are studied in some detail, focusing on the effects of insufficient longitudinal stiffness of central towers and partially longitudinal constraints between the bridge deck and part of bridge towers. The effectiveness of viscous fluid dampers on the mitigation of longitudinal buffeting responses of the bridge is further investigated and a multiobjective optimization design method that uses a nondominating sort genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) is used to optimize parameters of the viscous fluid dampers. The results of the parametric investigations show that, by appropriate use of viscous fluid dampers, the top displacements of central towers and base forces of bridge towers longitudinally restricted with the bridge deck can be reduced significantly, with hampering the significant gain achieved in the base forces of bridge towers longitudinally unrestricted with the bridge deck. And the optimized parameters for the viscous fluid dampers can be determined from Pareto-optimal fronts using the NSGA-II that can satisfy the desired performance requirements.

Multiobjective Optimal Control of Longitudinal Seismic Response of a Multitower Cable-Stayed Bridge

The dynamic behavior of a multitower cable-stayed bridge with the application of partially longitudinal constraint system using viscous fluid dampers under real earthquake ground motions is presented. The study is based on the dynamic finite element model of the Jiashao Bridge, a six-tower cable-stayed bridge in China. The prime aim of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of viscous fluid dampers on the longitudinal seismic responses of the bridge and put forth a multiobjective optimization design method to determine the optimized parameters of the viscous fluid dampers. The results of the investigations show that the control objective of the multitower cable-stayed bridge with the partially longitudinal constraint system is to yield maximum reductions in the base forces of bridge towers longitudinally restricted with the bridge deck, with slight increases in the base forces of bridge towers longitudinally unrestricted with the bridge deck. To this end, a multiobjective optimization design method that uses a nondominating sort genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) is used to optimize parameters of the viscous fluid dampers. The effectiveness of the proposed optimization design method is demonstrated for the multitower cable-stayed bridge with the partially longitudinal constraint system, which reveals that a design engineer can choose a set of proper parameters of the viscous fluid dampers from Pareto optimal fronts that can satisfy the desired performance requirements.

The Comparison between Viscous Fluid Dampers and Romanian Friction Dampers Performance in Base Isolation System of Buildings

This paper analyse the performance of two types of devices used for protecting the building against collaps during earthquakes. These devices are used in paralell with the base isolation system of the building and are intended to increase the damping phenomenon in order to dissipate the quakes energy received by the resistance structure of the buildings. The purpose of this computational study is to determine if these friction dampers, which are four times less expensive than the classical viscous fluid dampers, can replace the classical choice in order to obtain a less expensive protection. The results obtained at the final of this study are encouraging because the damping performances of romanian telescopic devices are similar with the performances of classical viscous fluid devices in base isolation system.