Comparison of engineering failures and seismic responses of 500 kV transformer-bushing systems in the 2022 Luding earthquake

Cemented and mechanically clamped types of end fittings(fitting-C and fitting-M)are commonly used in transformer bushings.During the Luding Ms 6.8 earthquake that occurred in China on September 5,2022,all transformer bushings with the two types of end fittings in a 500 kV substation were damaged.Post-earthquake field investigations were conducted,and the failures of the two types of bushings were compared.Two elementary simulation models of the transformer-bushing systems were developed to simulate the engineering failures,and further compute their seismic responses for comparison.The results indicate that the hitch lugs of the connection flange are structurally harmful to seismic resistance.Fitting-M can decrease the bending stiffness of the bushing due to the flexible sealing rubber gasket.Since it provides a more flexible connection that dissipates energy,the peak accelerations and relative displacements at the top of the bushing are significantly lower than those of the bushing with fitting-C.Compared with fitting-C,fitting-M transfers the high-stress areas from the connection flange to the root of the porcelain,so the latter becomes the most vulnerable component.Fitting-M increases the failure risk of the low-strength porcelain,indicating the unsuitability of applying it in high-intensity fortification regions.

Prediction of pilot workload in helicopter landing after one engine failure

This paper presents a method to predict the pilot workload in helicopter landing after one engine failure.The landing procedure is simulated numerically via applying nonlinear optimal control method in the form of performance index,path constraints and boundary conditions based on an augmented six-degree-of-freedom rigid-body flight dynamics model,solved by collocation and numerical optimization method.UH-60 A helicopter is taken as the sample for the demonstration of landing after one engine failure.The numerical simulation was conducted to find the trajectory of helicopter and the controls from pilot for landing after one engine failure with different performance index considering the factor of pilot workload.The reasonable performance index and corresponding landing trajectory and controls are obtained by making a comparison with those from the flight test data.Furthermore,the pilot workload is evaluated based on wavelet transform analysis of the pilot control activities.The workloads of pilot control activities for collective control,longitudinal and lateral cyclic controls and pedal control during the helicopter landing after one engine failure are examined and compared with those of flight test.The results show that when the performance index considers the factor of pilot workload properly,the characteristics of amplitudes and constituent frequencies of pilot control inputs in the optimal solution are consistent with those of the pilot control inputs in the flight test.Therefore,the proposed method provides a tool of predicting the pilot workload in helicopter landing after one engine failure.

Study of helicopter autorotation landing following engine failure based on a six-degree-of-freedom rigid-body dynamic model

This paper focuses on the prediction of the safe autorotation landing operations of a helicopter following engine failure.The autorotation landing procedure is formulated as a nonlinear optimal control problem based on an augmented six-degree-of-freedom rigid-body flight dynamic model.First,the cost function and constraints are properly selected.The direct transcription approach is then employed to solve the optimal control problem.For a UH-60 helicopter,the optimal solutions with the rigid-body model are compared with those obtained using a two-dimensional point-mass model.It is found that the optimal solutions using the two different models show reasonably good agreement,and furthermore the optimal solutions using the rigid-body model involve the time histories of angular rates and attitudes,lateral velocity and position,as well as pitch controls.Finally the optimal control formulations with different cost functions are proposed for taking account of 1-s time delay and minimum touchdown speed.The calculated control strategies and trajectories are realistic.

Thermo-Mechanical Analysis of a Typical Vehicle Engine Using PTC-Creo

In this work,a typical vehicle engine is modeled within PTC-Creo soft­ware,and its thermal,mechanical,and thermo-mechanical performance are evaluated.This is followed by the vibrational,fatigue,and buckling analy­sis of the assembly of components,which are the predominant failure caus­es.The results show that the least temperature gradient occurs in the center of the pin,which connects the piston to the connecting rod,the maximum displacement is seen just below the piston head,and the thermo-mechanical failure is caused mostly(about 85%)by the mechanical load rather than the thermal one.Also,in fatigue analysis,the minimum and maximum values for the safety factor are 0.63 and 5,respectively.The results can prevent the reoccurrence of similar failures and help the enhancement of the compo­nents’design and manufacturing process.

Rock engineering design of post-tensioned anchors for dams - A review

High-capacity, post-tensioned anchors have found wide-spread use, originally in initial dam design and construction, and more recently in the strengthening and rehabilitation of concrete dams to meet modern design and safety standards. Despite the advances that have been made in rock mechanics and rock engineering during the last 80 years in which post-tensioned anchors have been used in dam en- gineering, some aspects of the rock engineering design of high-capacity rock anchors for dams have changed relatively little over the last 30 or 40 years. This applies, in particular, to the calculations usually carried out to establish the grouted embedment lengths required for deep, post-tensioned anchors. These calculations usually make simplified assumptions about the distribution and values of rock-grout interface shear strengths, the shape of the volume of rock likely to be involved in uplift failure under the influence of a system of post-tensioned anchors, and the mechanism of that failure. The resulting designs are generally conservative. It is concluded that these aspects of the rock engineering design of large, post- tensioned rock anchors for dams can be significantly improved by making greater use of modern, comprehensive, numerical analyses in conjunction with three-dimensional （3D） models of the rock mass structure, realistic rock and rock mass properties, and the results of prototype anchor tests in the rock mass concerned.

Highly efficient computation method for hazard quantification of uncontained rotor failure

Uncontained Engine Rotor Failure(UERF)can cause a catastrophic failure of an aircraft,and the quantitative assessment of the hazards related to UERF is a very important part of safety analysis.However,the procedure for hazard quantification of UERF recommended by the Federal Aviation Administration in advisory circular AC20-128A is cumbersome,as it involves building auxiliary lines and curve projections.To improve the efficiency and general applicability of the risk angle calculation,a boundary discretization method is developed that involves discretizing the geometry of the target part/structure into node points and calculating the risk angles numerically by iterating a particular algorithm over each node point.The improved efficiency and excellent accuracy for the developed algorithm was validated through a comparison with manual solutions for the hazard quantification of the engine nacelle structures of a passenger aircraft using the guidance in AC20-128A.To further demonstrate the applicability of the boundary discretization method,the proposed algorithm was used to examine the influence of the target size and the distance between the target and rotor on the hazard probability.