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和建筑国家研究中心(HBRC)主席Khaled El-Zahaby博士合作开展的一个研究项目。他们将对埃及Zafarana风电场的风力发电塔楼进行地震风险评估。2012年，扎法拉纳风力发电场的装机容量为517兆瓦，使其成为世界上最大的陆上风力发电场之一。它位于苏伊士湾西侧的活跃地震区。风力发电场正在考虑向南延伸，在不久的将来建设。需要进行地震风险评估，以评估该地区预期地震危险事件下风塔的结构完整性，当风力涡轮机位于可能活跃的地震区时，此风险评估程序可能很有价值。该项目的目标是进行跨学科研究，通过结合实地测量的结构值进行一系列地震分析来确定地震风险和地震荷载。最终目标是定义和改进风力机结构的抗震设计。风力机是独特的结构。它们高大、修长、灵活，容易受到动态载荷的影响。此外，与静止的建筑物或桥梁相比，它们是运行/移动的结构。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具有重要和广泛的意义。这个国际项目结合了来自两个国家的科学家、工程师、学生和研究人员组成的团队。两个团队的不同专业知识是研究工作的优势，他们之间的文化交流是这个项目重要的、更广泛的影响。这项研究将被整合到参与研究所的结构和岩土工程方案的几个方面。这项研究的结果将对中东以及世界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加这项研究，范围从风力涡轮机塔架结构和土壤结构相互作用的数值模拟，到进行现场调查和仪器测试的实际方面，从而为参与者提供全面的教育。在这方面，将积极招收来自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参与者提供独特的体验。拟议的地震学研究、荷载的地质技术研究、动态现场测量以及现有风塔的结构地震分析将极大地增强相关的设计建议，并为该项目提供强大的智力价值。实际估计的场地荷载可以应用于将位于同一区域的新塔楼。将在Zafarana获得的新的风力涡轮机环境振动数据集将构成校准分析工具的基础，以便在其他地方进行研究。这些数据将被专业存档，供世界各地感兴趣的研究人员和从业人员使用。将根据实际数据和风力涡轮机的详细结构评估，为设计规范中的条款推导出有价值的建议。该项目由美国-埃及联合科技基金项目资助。这些合作项目的美方支持由美国国务院提供给美国国家科学基金会。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.