WIND FLOW INDUCED VIBRATIONS OF TAPERED MASTS

AHMAD BANI-HANI

Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering

The University of Jordan
June,1996

Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
at the
CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY
May, 2009

This thesis has been approved

for the Department of MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
and the College of Graduate Studies by

Thesis Committee Chairperson, Dr. Majid Rashidi

Department & Date

Dr. Rama S.R.Gorla

Department & Date

Dr. Earnest N. Poulos

Department & Date

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author is indebted to Dr. Majid Rashidi and hereby would like to express his
sincere appreciation and gratitude to him for his valuable guidance, help and
encouragement during the process of this research work and in the preparation of this
thesis. Without his guidance and support this work would have been impossible.

The author also would like to offer his sincere gratitude to Dr. Earnest N. Poulos
and Dr. Rama S.R.Gorla for their invaluable technical guidance and advice throughout
the course of this research.

The author wishes to extend his thanks to his family and friends, especially his
wife Areege, who were a constant and active source of support throughout the endeavor.

WIND FLOW INDUCED VIBRATION OF TAPERED MASTS

AHMAD BANI HANI
ABSTRACT
Structural dynamic analyses of elongated masts subjected to various wind speeds are
presented in this work. The masts are modeled as vertically supported cantilever beams,
with one end fixed to the ground, and the other end free. The external excitation forces
acting of the masts are the results of vortex shedding represented by a sinusoidal time
dependent functions. The frequencies of these sinusoidal functions are dictated by the
Strouhal numbers associated of the flow regimes crossing over the masts. To enhance
the vibratory behavior of a typical mast, under the influence of flow induced vibrations,
three different mass distributions along the length of the mast were considered. The
different mass distributions were achieved by tapering the mast along its length,
allocating more of the mass at its fixed end, and gradually decreasing it toward its free
end. Three different tapering angles were considered for these studies. All results were
compared with the results obtained for a straight circular cross-section cylindrical mast
having the same overall length and mass. For a mast length of 25 meters and a total mass
of 1782.74 kg, three tapered angles of 0.229, 0.458 , and 0.596 degrees, were
considered. These analyses show that the first natural frequencies of the tapered masts
increases from that of the straight mast. The first natural frequency of the straight mass
was determined to be 0.2845 Hrz. The corresponding first natural frequencies for the
masts with tapered angle of 0.229, 0.458, and 0.596 became 0.417, 0.5911, and
0.7435Hrz. respectively. In addition to the natural frequency analyses, dynamic
iv