Numerical Simulation Of Fluid-structure Interaction On Tensioned Membrane Structure

As a typical of wind sensitive structures， tensioned membrane structure hasseveral dynamic properties such as lightweight, stiffness and low natural frequency.While fluid-structure interaction effect is obvious, it requires special attention to thefluid-structure interaction problems when doing research on the wind effect ofmembrane structure accurate. There are three main methods to research on the FSI: theanalytical method, the aero-elastic model wind tunnel tests and CFD numericalsimulation methods. The analytical method must be based on a variety of assumptionsand simplifications, and unable be used to handle complex flow problems; with thelimitations of the test equipment, the pattern of results is limited and it’s expensive tocompleted with the method of the aero-elastic model wind tunnel tests. It can reproducethe flow phenomena to study the mechanism with the CFD numerical simulationmethod, however, due to more than one object of study involved and difficult to solve, itis still in the exploratory stage and most papers concentrated in improving the numericalsimulation accuracy with the less attention to the mechanism. This present paper aims tostudy the FSI mechanism of the tensioned membrane structure with the CFD numericalsimulation.Firstly, based on the numerical simulation platform of ADINA，the FSI oftensioned membrane structure and wind is studied. The theoretical framework is set upto solve FSI problem based on the iterative coupling algorithm, and detailed discussionon the key parameters involved is did, then the numerical simulation of FSI on one-waytensioned membrane structure is achieved. The comparing of the result between theCFD and the aero-elastic model wind tunnel test show that the numerical simulationresults could reflect the characteristics qualitative of the FSI.Based of above method, the FSI of one-way tensioned membrane structure atdifferent wind speeds are simulated, and the aero-elastic instability phenomenaappeared in the test are reproduced. With studying changes of structural vibration modesand vibration modes with different wind speed and analyzing the displacement response,surface wind speed before and after the occurrence of instability of the structure in thetime domain and frequency domain, the results are found. Before the instability occurs,it doesn’t resonate between the structure and the wind. As the increase of the wind speed,the vibration of the structure changes to the multi-mode vibration from a single mode.After the instability occurs, vortex-induced resonance occurs between the structure andthe wind.At the same time, the FSI of typical tensioned membrane structures-the saddle-shaped and the umbrella membrane structures is simulated with the ADINA platform. The changing rules of the surface pressure and the displacement response are obtainedand and the effect of the wind from different direction to the FSI performance of thesaddle-shaped membrane structure is discussed.