Wind-induced responses for cable net structures considering punching rate of reflecting panels

Abstract

The datum surface of the active reflector of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is a spherical crown with a radius of 300 m and an aperture of 500 m. The reflector is supported on a cable net structure. Due to its sensitivity to wind loads, it is imperative to investigate its aerodynamic characteristics and wind-induced vibration response. This paper explores the aerodynamic characteristics of the reflecting panel through computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Compared with the nonporous panel, the drag coefficient of the reflecting panel with a punching rate of approximately 50% increases by approximately 51%, and the main reason is that the resistance changes little, but the projected area decreases by 50%. On this basis, the calculation method of the aerodynamic coefficient of the reflecting panel under arbitrary wind direction angle is established. Then, the simulation model of the active reflector system is established, and the wind-induced vibration response is analyzed under different wind speed conditions. The displacement and stress responses of the cable net structure, ring beams, and lattice columns are studied, and the gust response factors (GRFs) are calculated. The results show that the wind load has a very strong effect on the nodal displacement and column bottom stress but has little effect on the stress of the cable net structure; the displacement GRFs of the cable net structure, ring beams, and lattice columns increase with increasing wind speed, of which the simulated results can provide a reference for the design of similar projects.