US-Egypt Cooperative Research: Seismic Risk Assessment of Wind Turbine Towers in Zafarana Wind Farm Egypt

该项目支持加州大学圣地亚哥分校Ahmed Elgamal博士与埃及开罗住房与建筑国家研究中心（HBRC）主席Khaled El-Zahaby博士合作开展的一项合作研究项目。他们将对埃及Zafarana风电场的风力涡轮机塔进行地震风险评估。2012年，Zafarana风电场的发电能力为517兆瓦，是世界上最大的陆上风电场之一。它位于苏伊士湾西侧的活跃地震带。正在考虑在不久的将来向南扩建风电场。需要进行地震风险评估，以评估该地点预期地震灾害事件下风塔的结构完整性，当风力涡轮机位于潜在的地震活跃区时，这种风险评估程序可能是有价值的。该项目的目标是通过一系列地震分析，结合现场测量的结构值，进行跨学科研究，以确定地震风险和地震载荷。最终目标是定义和改进风力涡轮机结构的抗震设计。风力涡轮机是一种独特的结构。它们高、细、灵活，易受动载荷的影响。此外，与静止的建筑物或桥梁相比，它们是在操作/移动结构。随着风能等替代能源在全球变得越来越重要，我们将继续拥有更多的风力涡轮机结构；因此，对这些结构进行研究是重要的和广泛相关的。这个国际项目由来自两个国家的科学家、工程师、学生和研究人员组成。两个团队的不同专业知识是研究工作的一个优势，他们之间的文化交流是这个项目重要的更广泛的影响。该研究将被整合到参与机构的结构和岩土工程项目的几个方面。这项研究的结果将对中东以及世界上其他地震活跃地区的类似项目具有重要意义。来自美国和埃及的研究生和本科生将参与研究，研究范围从风力涡轮机塔的结构和土结构相互作用的数值模拟到进行实地调查和仪器的实际方面，从而为参与者提供全面的教育。在这方面，将积极招募来自STEM代表性不足社区的学生。此外，拟议研究的国际/跨文化合作方面将为相关人员提供独特的体验。建议的地震学研究、荷载的岩土技术研究、动力场测量和现有风塔的结构地震分析将大大提高相关的设计建议，并为本项目提供强大的智力价值。实际估计的场地负荷可以应用于将位于同一区域的新塔楼。在Zafarana获得的新的风力涡轮机环境振动数据集将构成校准其他地方研究的分析工具的基础。这些数据将被专业存档，供全世界感兴趣的研究人员和从业人员使用。本文将根据实际数据和风力涡轮机的详细结构评估，为设计规范的规定提出有价值的建议。该项目由美国-埃及联合科学技术基金项目资助。这些合作项目的美方支持由美国国务院提供给国家科学基金会。埃及政府为埃及方面的合作提供支持。

This project supports a cooperative research project by Dr Ahmed Elgamal, University of California-San Diego in collaboration with Dr. Khaled El-Zahaby, Chairman, Housing and Building national Research Center (HBRC) in Cairo, Egypt. They will performe a Seismic Risk Assessment of Wind Turbine Towers in the Zafarana Wind Farm in Egypt. The Zafarana wind farm in 2012 was generating a capacity of 517MW, making it one of the largest onshore wind farms in the world. It is located in an active seismic zone along the west side of the Gulf of Suez. An extension of the wind farm southward is under consideration for construction in the near future. Seismic risk assessment is needed to assess the structural integrity of wind towers under expected seismic hazard events in this location, and this risk assessment procedure is likely to be valuable whenever wind turbines are located in a potentially active seismic region. The project objective is to pursue interdisciplinary studies to define seismic risk and seismic loads via a range of seismic analyses that are coupled with measured structural values in the field. The ultimate goal is to define and improve seismic design of wind turbine structures.Wind turbines are unique structures. They are tall, slender and flexible and susceptible to dynamic loads. In addition, they are operating/moving structures as compared to buildings or bridges which are stationary. As alternative energy sources such as wind become more important globally, we will continue to have more wind turbine structures; therefore, pursuing research for these structures is important and broadly relevant. This international project combines a team of scientists, engineers, students and researchers from two countries. The diverse expertise of the two teams is a strength of the research effort and the cultural exchange between them is an important broader impact of this project. The research will be integrated into several facets of the structural and geotechnical engineering programs at the participating institutes. Results of this study will be of relevance to similar projects in the Middle East, as well as in other seismically active regions worldwide. Graduate and undergraduate students from the US and from Egypt will participate in the research, which ranges from numerical modeling of structure and soil structure interaction of wind turbine towers to the practical aspects of conducting a field investigation and instrumentation, thus providing a well-rounded education for the participants. In this regard, students from STEM under-represented communities will be actively recruited. Additionally, the international/intercultural collaborative aspects of the proposed research will provide a unique experience for those involved.The proposed seismological studies, geo technical studies for loads, dynamic field measurements, and structural seismic analyses of existing wind towers will greatly enhance the associated design recommendations and provide strong intellectual merit for this project. The actual estimated site loads can be applied to the new towers that will be located in the same zone. The new wind turbine ambient vibration datasets to be acquired at Zafarana will constitute a basis for calibration of analysis tools for studies elsewhere. This data will be professionally archived and made available for use by interested researchers and practitioners worldwide. Valuable recommendations will be deduced for provisions in design codes based on realistic data and detailed structural assessments of the wind turbines. This project is funded through the US-Egypt Joint Science and Technology Fund Program. Support for the U.S. side of these cooperative projects is provided to the National Science Foundation by the U.S. Department of State. The Egyptian Government provides support for the Egyptian side of the collaboration.