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In this paper, the problem of wind-induced vibration in tall buildings is addressed by utilizing a new type of damper, the tuned mass damper fluid inerter (TMDFI). The TMDFI incorporates an inerter in the classical tuned mass damper (TMD), which is physically realized using fluid in a helical channel. The device arrangement is optimized using a proposed nonlinear procedure and it is demonstrated through numerical simulations that the application of the TMDFI achieves excellent vibration control performance. Specifically, it has been found that the TMDFI requires lower mass and stroke requirements than traditional passive dampers while achieving comparable or better vibration reductions. It has been shown numerically that the damper demonstrates excellent vibration control capabilities by reducing the RMS displacement of the building by ≈50% and the RMS acceleration by 35%–80%. The results presented here show that the TMDFI is a damper capable of mitigating wind-induced vibrations in tall buildings with relatively simple design requirements. This new damper has the potential to significantly improve the safety, comfort, and durability of tall buildings subjected to wind loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We contribute to the refined understanding of language-logic-algebra interplay in a recent algebraic framework over countable words. Algebraic characterizations of the one variable fragment of FO as well as the boolean closure of the existential fragment of FO are established. We develop a seamless integration of the block product operation in the countable setting, and generalize well-known decompositional characterizations of FO and its two variable fragment. We propose an extension of FO admitting infinitary quantifiers to reason about inherent infinitary properties of countable words, and obtain a natural hierarchical block-product based characterization of this extension. Properties expressible in this extension can be simultaneously expressed in the classical logical systems such as WMSO and FO[cut]. We also rule out the possibility of a finite-basis for a block-product based characterization of these logical systems. Finally, we report algebraic characterizations of one variable fragments of the hierarchies of the new extension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exposes the risk of generalization of wind conditions from a single met-mast measurement to be representative of the actual flow field in a wind farm situated in complex terrain. As a case study, Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) of the neutral Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) flow for a mid-western Sweden wind farm is performed. The site-specific complex topography and the forest properties like the Plant Area Density and the tree heights are extracted from the Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) 3D data, thus the forest is heterogeneous. To emphasize the impact of the local topography and surface roughness on the wind field, the wind turbines are not included in the numerical simulations. The predicted wind speeds using LES are compared to wind speed from the nacelle-mounted anemometers taken from the wind farm's turbine SCADA data, focusing on the wake-free turbines. A sufficient degree of match is observed, supporting the accuracy of the numerical simulations. The results show that inflow variables i.e., mean wind speed, shear exponent and turbulence intensity vary at each wind turbine location justifying the need for turbine-specific assessment of the wind resource in a wind farm located in forested complex terrain. The inter-turbine (between turbines in the wind farm) differences in wind resource is quantified in terms of the difference in turbine-specific structural and mechanical loads by running wind turbine mechanical simulations using the extracting the wind fields predicted by the LES. The results show that not only inter-turbine loads varying significantly in the wind farm, but the turbine loads also differ significantly if a homogeneous assumption is made for the forest. Most importantly, it was found that the homogeneous forest assumption predicted a higher turbulence intensity compared to a heterogeneous forest resulting. • CFD modelling of atmospheric flow through heterogeneous forest in complex terrain. • Using Airborne Laser Scans data to extract terrain and heterogeneous forest property. • Poor wind prediction based on a single met-mast measurement in a hilly wind farm. • Impact of forest modeling assumptions on fatigue life of a wind turbine components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vibration control is an essential component of safe and sustained operation of modern large wind turbine towers. As the blade-tower assembly offers time-dependent system matrices that periodically evolves with the rotational speed of the turbine, control theories (e.g. linear quadratic Gaussian) can not be directly adopted in this case. With this in view, the present study aims to develop a semi-active strategy using multiple magneto-rheological tuned liquid column dampers (MR-TLCDs) to mitigate excessive vibration of the horizontal axis wind turbine towers. The design of the controller is achieved by the multi-blade coordinate transformation that converts the system matrices into a non-rotating framework followed by time averaging to enable the application of linear control law. Parameters of the non-linear MR-TLCDs are optimally tuned to dissipate maximum energy. Aerodynamic loads are evaluated using modified blade element momentum theory. The performance of the proposed control strategy is assessed against different wind speeds. Clipping laws are employed to keep the semi-active control force in the feasible range. Two different clipping laws are compared in this paper. Finally, sensitivity analysis is carried out to demonstrate the performance envelope and robustness of the proposed controller. • Semi-active control of wind turbine tower using multiple MR-TLCDs. • Response characterization using blade-tower interaction. • Aerodynamic load estimation using BEM theory and rotationally sampled spectra. • Optimal control force estimation in LQG/LTR framework using MBC transformation. • Sensitivity analysis using actual large scale wind turbine parameters is carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formation of 1-aminomethanol in troposphere through the reaction between formaldehyde and ammonia has been investigated by means of electronic structure and chemical kinetics calculations employing CCSD(T)/CBS//MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory. The process is not favorable under tropospheric conditions due to high reaction barrier (30.4 kcal mol−1) and very low rate coefficient (1.7×10−34 cm3 molecule−1 s−1 at 298 K). As a result, catalytic influence of water (monomer and dimer) and formic acid on the ammonolysis of formaldehyde have also been studied. Formic acid was found to be the most efficient in lowering the activation energy and makes the reaction barrierless. It acts better than the other catalysts in terms of rate coefficient as well (increment in rate coefficient with respect to uncatalyzed channel is by ∼1021 times whereas the same for water dimer and water monomer are by ∼1015 and ∼1011, respectively). Further comparative studies on the efficiencies of catalysts carried out by means of relative rate calculations reveal that formic acid catalyzed channel dominates over the water catalyzed channels at 0 km altitude when concentration of the former is high but water catalyzed channels dominate at higher temperature when formic acid is present in low concentration. On the other hand, the reaction proceeds almost exclusively via formic acid catalyzed channel at higher altitudes in troposphere. • 1-aminoethanol formation via ammonolysis of formaldehyde in troposphere is studied. • Effect of water monomer, water dimer and formic acid catalysis has been studied. • Formic acid catalyzed ammonolysis is found to be barrierless. • Water can compete with formic acid in catalyzing the reaction at surface layer. • The reaction exclusively follows formic acid catalyzed channel at higher altitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Present study aims to address the design of smart vibration control scheme for horizontal axis wind turbine tower using magneto‐rheological tuned liquid column damper. With this in view, a reduced order model of the blade‐tower system is used, considering centrifugal stiffening and gravitational effects that lead to time‐dependent dynamic stiffness matrix. Aerodynamic load on the blades is modeled using blade element momentum theory. Semiactive control law in linear quadratic regulator framework is developed to mitigate the along‐wind vibration of the tower. To implement the control law, multiblade coordinate transformation is adopted that converts the system matrices in the nonrotating framework to tackle its time dependency. The performance of the proposed control algorithm is demonstrated using numerical simulations with and without controller. Clipped optimality of the control force is imposed to keep the parameters of magneto‐rheological tuned liquid column damper in the feasible range. Finally, sensitivity analysis is carried out to demonstrate the performance envelope of the proposed control algorithm for different operational scenario. Results presented in this paper clearly demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can be employed for effective along‐wind vibration control of large HWAT tower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum chemical calculations at QCISD and CCSD(T) levels of theory have been performed to investigate the effect of NH3 and HCO2H on the reaction between OH• and HCl. Potential energy profiles indicate that both NH3 and HCO2H catalyzed reactions could proceed through two different channels, namely, single and double hydrogen atom transfer. Theoretically calculated rate constants for both the catalysts show that both NH3 and HCO2H catalyzed channels prefer a single hydrogen atom transfer path. Besides, both NH3 and HCO2H catalyzed paths have higher rate constant values as compared to that of the water catalyzed path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the use of a tuned mass damper fluid-inerter (TMDFI) for vibration control of spar-type floating offshore wind turbine towers. The use of an inerter in parallel with the spring and damper of a tuned mass damper (TMD) is a relatively new concept. The ideal inerter has a mass amplification effect on the classical TMD leading to greater vibration control capabilities. Previous work by the authors has shown that inerter based TMDs have great potential in vibration control of floating offshore wind turbines where enhanced vibration mitigation can be achieved using a relatively lighter device than classical TMDs. However, this previous work was based on the assumption of an ideal inerter that assumes the use of a mechanical flywheel type inerter. Mechanical inerters have some inherent disadvantages due to their complexity in design and high cost of maintenance. The use of a fluid inerter can alleviate these disadvantages as its design is rather simple and it comes with very low maintenance. Such devices have been proposed and investigated in the literature, however, their applicability in vibration control of floating wind turbines has not been investigated by researchers. The optimal design of a TMDFI is presented in this paper. It has been shown that optimization of a TMDFI is a six-dimensional non-linear optimization problem whose solution hyperplane contains multiple local minima. A systematic way has been developed in this paper, avoiding the use of metaheuristic search techniques, to optimize the damper while providing greater insight into the damper properties that offers a set of guidance to the designer. Numerical results demonstrate impressive vibration control capabilities of this new device under various stochastic wind-wave loads. It has been shown that the fluid-inerter performs as well as the ideal mechanical inerter. The considerable advantages of a TMDFI over the classical TMD demonstrated in this paper makes it an exciting candidate for vibration control. • Proposed tuned mass-damper-fluid-inerter (TMDFI) for FOWT tower vibration control. • Developed approach of finding global minima of a 6D TMDFI optimization problem. • Provides insight into the properties and behaviour of the TMDFI for designers. • TMDFIs impressively control FOWT tower vibrations significantly better than TMDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates the use of Kane's method to derive equations of motion for a spar-type floating offshore wind turbine taking into account the flexibility of the members. The recently emerged Kane's method reduces the effort required to derive equations of motion for complex multi-body systems, making them simpler to model and more readily solved by computers. Further, the installation procedure of external vibration control devices on the wind turbine using Kane's method is described, and the ease of using this method has been demonstrated. A tuned mass damper inerter (TMDI) is installed in the tower for illustration. The excellent vibration mitigation properties of the TMDI are also presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spar type floating wind turbines exposed to marine environment experience significant vibration, which is more prominent under wind-wave misalignment. This unavoidable vibration, particularly in the sway direction, affects overall performance and can induce significant damage to sensitive electro-mechanical components leading to downtime for maintenance. With this in view, the present study aims to propose a modified spar-torus combination by introducing spring and dashpot in between, so that it can work as an isolator. First, a comprehensive mathematical model for this multi-body system is developed using Kane's approach with proper aero-elastic and hydrodynamic simulation. For this purpose, 3D wind fields are generated in TurbSim and the waves are simulated from Pierson-Moskovitch spectrum considering wind-wave correlation and misalignment. Aerodynamic loads are computed using modified Blade Element Momentum theory while and hydrodynamic loads are generated using Morison's equation. Using these inputs, the response of the modified spar-torus combination is solved, which demonstrates the efficiency and advantage of the proposed vibration isolation. Different sea states and wind conditions are simulated replicating the actual scenario to investigate the performance envelope of the proposed controller for spar-type floating wind turbines. • Spar-Torus combination is modified so that it can act as an isolator for wave induced load. • Multi-body dynamic formulation is developed in Kane's approach considering aeroelastic and hydro-dynamicsimulation. • Significant vibration control is achieved in sway direction under wave-wind misalignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a wavelet multi-resolution based individual pitch control strategy for spar-type floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) and investigates its performance under joint wind-wave-current loads considering the effects of wave-current interactions. A multi-resolution analysis (MRA) based wavelet controller that modifies an optimal control problem cast in linear quadratic regulator (LQR) form constrained to a band of frequency has been used in this paper. The weighting matrices of the LQ regulator are varied in different frequency bands depending on the emphasis to be placed on the response energy and control effort to minimize the cost functional of that frequency band. This formulation results in frequency band dependent controller gains that lead to a time-varying controller. Daubechies wavelet is used in the MRA based filter that ensures perfect decomposition of the time signal over a finite interval and fast numerical implementation for control application. The multi-resolution wavelet-LQR individual blade pitch controller is used to control blade out-of-plane vibrations with additional emphasis on 1P frequency of the wind turbine. The emphasis on 1P frequency along with the blade's out-of-plane natural frequency is shown to reduce aerodynamic loads corresponding to 1st rotational frequency of the wind turbine which in turn reduces vibrations in other modes of the wind turbine. The proposed controller is simulated using a 5-MW baseline offshore wind turbine with realistic operational conditions including wave-current interactions. The controller has been proved to be effective in every analyzed met-ocean condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper investigates the use of a passive tuned mass‐damper‐inerter (TMDI) for vibration control of spar‐type floating offshore wind turbine towers. The TMDI is a relatively new concept as a passive vibration control device. The configuration consists of an "inerter" attached to the tuned mass, parallel to the spring and damper of a classical tuned mass damper (TMD). The inerter provides a mass amplification effect on the classical TMD. The presence of the inerter virtually increases the mass of the damper leading to greater vibration control capabilities. This enables one to achieve improved vibration control using a lighter damper. Using a lightweight damper is particularly important for an offshore wind turbine because increasing mass on top of the tower can destabilize the overall system and increase tower vibrations, as demonstrated in this paper. The development of a passive TMDI for an offshore wind turbine tower has been proposed in detail in this work. Numerical simulations have been performed and results are presented demonstrating the impressive vibration control capabilities of this new device under various stochastic wind‐wave loads. It has been shown that the TMDI has considerable advantages over the classical TMD, achieving impressive response reductions with reductions in the stroke of the tuned mass. The TMDI has been shown to be a promising candidate for replacing the classical TMD for offshore wind applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to develop a methodology to estimate jute (Corchorus sp.) cultivated areas in the Indian subcontinent using sentinel-1A Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) C band dual polarization data. We developed a hierarchical decision tree (DT) model to estimate jute area and compared it with other supervised and unsupervised methods. The proposed DT model showed improved overall accuracy of 82–83% (Kappa coefficient, k = 0.78–0.79) over supervised or unsupervised methods and validated against Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES) data, Government of India during 2016–2019. The VV backscatter record improved accuracy over VH backscatter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) are the largest rotating structures on the earth. Dynamically sensitive structures such as these must be protected in these environments to ensure that they can continue to operate reliably and safely. In this paper structural dynamic models and probabilistic assessment tools are combined to demonstrate improvements in structural reliability when FOWT towers are equipped with a new type of damper — the tuned mass damper inerter (TMDI). A multi-body dynamic approach is used to model the wind turbine and the TMDI installed in the tower. The model is subjected to stochastically generated wind and wave loads of varying magnitudes to develop wind-induced probabilistic demand models for towers of FOWTs under model and load uncertainties. A focus is placed on the impact of the wind-wave misalignment on the lightly damped side-to-side mode. Numerical simulations are carried out to construct fragility curves which illustrate reductions in the vulnerability of FOWTs to wind and wave loading owing to the inclusion of the new damper. Results show that the TMDI delivers significant increases in structural reliability of FOWT towers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy metal contamination of water is a burning global issue, and enormous importance has been given on easily applicable watertreatment methods namely adsorption. However, search for an efficient and reusable adsorbent is ever-evolving. In this study, activated carbon from highly ligno-cellulosic jute stick (JS-AC), the agricultural by-product of jute (Corchorus olitorius), was evaluated as a new adsorbent for removing cadmium (Cd) from the aqueous medium. The direct and interaction effects of four independent adsorption factors namely, initial Cd(II) concentration (20–100 mg/L), adsorbent dose (0.5–1 g/L), solution pH (3–7), and time (30–180 min) were investigated by applying response surface methodology (RSM). A 24 Box-Behnken matrix model with 3 centre points indicated that the maximum % Cd(II) removal was achieved at the initial concentration, dose, pH and time of 60.87 mg/L, 0.5 g/L, 7, and 30 min, respectively. The adsorption equilibrium was investigated by applying Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin, and Jovanoic isotherm models while Langmuir isotherm exhibited the best fit (R2 = 0.99). The maximum Cd(II) adsorption capacity value of JS-AC was 73.53 mg/g. Finally, JS-AC was regenerated with 0.1M HNO3 as the desorption medium and reused for five successive cycles. This study indicated that jute stick, the under-utilised agro-residue of a cash crop, could be converted into a valuable product like JS-AC which offers immense application potential as an efficient and reusable adsorbent to treat Cd(II) contaminated aqueous medium before releasing in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The aim of this study is to reduce the deformation of large horizontal axis wind turbine blades using shape memory alloy (SMA)‐based centrifugal stiffening. A discrete model considering dominant modes of the tower, drive train and blades is developed in this study to demonstrate the performance of the proposed stiffening strategy. Here, super‐elastic behaviour of SMA is characterized by Graesser‐Cozzarelli model. Aerodynamic loads acting on the blades are evaluated using blade element momentum theory. The response is simulated using aerodynamic damping, which is estimated in each mode of vibration. Numerical results presented in this paper clearly show the significance of the proposed SMA‐based stiffening to reduce blade vibration. Sensitivity analysis is also carried out to demonstrate the performance envelop of the proposed stiffening strategy over the operational range of the benchmark 5‐MW wind turbine. The study clearly highlights the performance enhancement in terms of deformation in two orthogonal directions and design in terms of longitudinal stress that ultimately improve the serviceability of the blade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]