Devendra Patil

Robustness study of the pounding tuned mass damper for vibration control of subsea jumpers

A previous study by the authors proposed a new type of damper, the pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD), which uses the impact of a tuned mass with viscoelastic materials to effectively dissipate vibration energy, for structural vibration control. However, the control performance is unknown if the PTMD is not tuned to the targeted frequency of the primary structure. This paper aims to study the robustness of the PTMD against the detuning effect both numerically and experimentally. The control object was chosen as a subsea jumper, which is a flexible M-shaped pipeline structure commonly used in offshore oil and gas production. In this paper, a 15.2 m (50 feet) long jumper incorporated with a PTMD was set up. To enable the numerical study, the equation of motion of the jumper along with the PTMD was derived. Three testing cases were numerically studied: free vibration, forced vibration and forced vibration with varied frequencies. In all cases, the PTMD can effectively suppress the structural vibration when the natural frequency was off-tuned. Furthermore, experimental studies were conducted. The experimental results also implied the robustness of the proposed PTMD.

Detection of Debonding Between Fiber Reinforced Polymer Bar and Concrete Structure Using Piezoceramic Transducers and Wavelet Packet Analysis

Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP), a composite material with high corrosion resistance and high strength-to-weight ratio, has been increasingly used in reinforced concrete structures. The effectiveness of the structures depends on the bonding behavior between FRP composites and concrete structures. Therefore, detection of the debonding between the FRP materials and the hosting concrete structure is of great importance to ensure the structural safety. This paper proposes a stress wave-based active sensing approach to monitor the debonding process of FRP bar with the hosting concrete structure. One shear-type lead zirconate titanate (PZT) patch bonded on the outer surface of the FRP bar was used as an actuator to generate stress wave. Two smart aggregates (SAs), which were fabricated by sandwiching a shear type PZT patch between two protection marble pieces, were embedded in the hosting concrete structure to detect the wave response. The occurrence of debonding between the FRP bar and the hosting concrete structure attenuates the wave propagation. An FRP bar reinforced concrete specimen was designed and fabricated in laboratory. A pullout test was conducted to simulate different degrees of debonding damage. The attenuation of the stress wave due to debonding was clearly observed from the signal received by SAs in both time and frequency domain. Furthermore, a damage index based on wavelet packet analysis was developed to evaluate the debonding status. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method has potentials to detect different degrees of debonding damage of FRP bar reinforced concrete composite structures.

Parametric study of pounding tuned mass damper for subsea jumpers

In previous study, a pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) was proposed to reduce the undesired vibration of a subsea jumper. Both experimental and numerical results verified the effectiveness of the PTMD. This paper aims to enhance the understanding of the PTMD through a parametric study. The jumper is subjected to sinusoidal forces of different frequencies. The reduction ratio is defined for evaluation of the mitigation performance. Three parameters are considered in this study: the pounding stiffness, the gap between the delimiter and the mass block, and the mass ratio. The parametric studies show that the PTMD system is not so sensitive to the small variations of the pounding stiffness and the gap. The reduction ratio is significantly increased with the mass ratio increased up to 2%. Afterwards, it is not so economic or practically feasible to enlarge the mass ratio.

Acoustic emission monitoring and finite element analysis of debonding in fiber-reinforced polymer rebar reinforced concrete:

The acoustic emission technique is widely used for mechanical diagnostics and damage characterization in reinforced concrete structures. This article experimentally investigated the feasibility of debonding characterization in fiber-reinforced polymer rebar reinforced concrete using acoustic emission technique. To this end, carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer rebar reinforced concrete specimens were prepared and they were subjected to pullout tests to study the interfacial debonding between concrete and reinforcement. Test results showed that the debonding failure between concrete and reinforcement was characterized by the total peeling off of the helical wrapping layer of the carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer reinforcement. The response of acoustic emission activity was analyzed by descriptive parameters, such as cumulative acoustic emission hits, amplitude, and peak frequency. The evolution of debonding failure is thus characterized by these acoustic emission parameters. The results demonstrated a clear correlation between the damage evolution of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer rebar pullout and the acoustic emission parameters. In addition, finite element analysis was adopted to study the stress field during the pullout of the reinforcement. The simulation results agreed well with the experimental investigations.

Wind turbine blade damage detection using an active sensing approach

The wind energy sector is one of the fastest growing parts of the clean energy industry. As the wind energy sector grows, so does an increasing concern for the damage detection of wind turbine blades. This paper proposes an active sensing approach by utilizing piezoceramic transducers as actuators and sensors. The influence of the crack quantity, location, length and depth on the wave propagation was experimentally studied. Sweep sine signals ranging from 1 khz to 50 khz were used as input signals for active sensing. The change in the energy that propagated through the cracks was verified as feasible in detecting crack-related damage. An innovative polar plot analysis method based on Fast Fourier transform was developed to compare the minuscule difference between the damage signals and the baseline signal. The polar plot was able to make apparent differences in both the magnitude and the phase of the signals, which could be correlated to crack depth and plane geometry, respectively, based on the observation of the damage.

Study of Impact Damage in PVA-ECC Beam under Low-Velocity Impact Loading Using Piezoceramic Transducers and PVDF Thin-Film Transducers

Compared to conventional concrete, polyvinyl alcohol fiber reinforced engineering cementitious composite (PVA-ECC) offers high-strength, ductility, formability, and excellent fatigue resistance. However, impact-induced structural damage is a major concern and has not been previously characterized in PVA-ECC structures. We investigate the damage of PVA-ECC beams under low-velocity impact loading. A series of ball-drop impact tests were performed at different drop weights and heights to simulate various impact energies. The impact results of PVA-ECC beams were compared with mortar beams. A combination of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) thin-film sensors and piezoceramic-based smart aggregate were used for impact monitoring, which included impact initiation and crack evolution. Short-time Fourier transform (STFT) of the signal received by PVDF thin-film sensors was performed to identify impact events, while active-sensing approach was utilized to detect impact-induced crack evolution by the attenuation of a propagated guided wave. Wavelet packet-based energy analysis was performed to quantify failure development under repeated impact tests.

Structural health monitoring of wind turbine blade using piezoceremic based active sensing and impedance sensing

Wind energy has recently risen to the forefront of green, sustainable energy. The structural health monitoring of wind turbine blades are important for optimal operational safety and costs. In this paper, the piezoceramic based active sensing method and impedance method were proposed and applied for the monitoring of wind turbine blades. A tensile test on a customized blade specimen and a destructive test on commercial full blade were performed to simulate the damage process. Piezoceramic patches were mounted on the surface to monitor the damage process. Wavelet packet analysis was used to build the energy vector for the propagated wave during active sensing. Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) based damage index were built for both approaches. Results indicate that both methods were able to detect and locate damage on wind turbine blades.

Shape memory alloy actuated accumulator for ultra-deepwater oil and gas exploration

As offshore oil and gas exploration moves further offshore and into deeper waters to reach hydrocarbon reserves, it is becoming essential for the industry to develop more reliable and efficient hydraulic accumulators to supply pressured hydraulic fluid for various control and actuation operations, such as closing rams of blowout preventers and controlling subsea valves on the seafloor. By utilizing the shape memory effect property of nitinol, which is a type of shape memory alloy (SMA), an innovative SMA actuated hydraulic accumulator prototype has been developed and successfully tested at Smart Materials and Structure Laboratory at the University of Houston. Absence of gas in the developed SMA accumulator prototype makes it immune to hydrostatic head loss caused by water depth and thus reduces the number of accumulators required in deep water operations. Experiments with a feedback control have demonstrated that the proposed SMA actuated accumulator can provide precisely regulated pressurized fluids. Furthermore the potential use of ultracapacitors along with an embedded system to control the electric power supplied to SMA allows this accumulator to be an autonomous device for deployment. The developed SMA accumulator will make deepwater oil extraction systems more compact and cost effective.