Structural Monitoring

The WinDyn Research Group has been involved in many experimental activities investigating the dynamic structural behavior of full-scale structures such as poles, towers, footbridges and cranes.

Long-term monitoring campaigns are on going over a wind turbine in the port of Savona and over a lighting pole in the port of La Spezia. High resolution measures of the dynamic response are recorded continuously by accelerometers and strain gauges. Wind speed and direction are recorded by ultrasonic anemometers. A real time internet connection allows checking the instant recordings from a remote station.

In the experimental facility of the Savona Harbor a 20 kW vertical axis wind turbine is monitored investigating the wind field, power production and structural behavior in standstill parked and operating conditions. The analysis of the acquired data provides fundamental frequencies, damping coefficients, information useful to carry out structural verifications and fatigue analyses.

 

The WinDyn Research Group has bThe port of La Spezia has recently suffered a number of unsteady wind phenomena, mostly coming from the sea. A monitoring campaign over a selection of slender structures will soon be fully operational. Results will provide useful information to study the structural response to synoptic winds and thunderstorms.