Evaluation of wind load on large telescope structure based on performance-based design

• Main Author: Wang, Ryan Po Chao
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/43515

Wind loads have been the governing factor that influences structural stability in overwhelmingly large structures. This is particularly of major concern when the analyzed structure in this study is merely a conceptual design. Previous studies have shown reduced pressure on structures due to application of windscreens, and a proposal had been made with preliminary structural analysis performed and proven to be feasible. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the extent of the functionality of the proposed windscreen by utilizing computational fluid dynamics and taking a performance-based design approach with performance objectives determined based on historical environmental data. In addition, different scenarios and boundary conditions are applied to provide a pressure envelope that generalizes the range of pressure experienced by the telescope. Simulation of air flow is performed with CFDesign, and the results obtained supported the previously-made hypothesis suggesting that implementation of windscreen enables pressure reduction. Although in some cases pressure increase is observed, the general trend of decrease dominates the trend of increase. Pressure envelopes for all structural elements are also provided for engineers as a performance-based design guideline based on different impact levels of wind loading. However, further analyses are needed to investigate the possibility of a windscreen of greater height, to emphasize on the simulation of finer details, and to validate the results from this analysis in an actual scaled-model wind tunnel testing if possible.