Response prediction of a 50m guyed mast under typhoon conditions

This paper presents the wind excited acceleration responses of a 50 m guyed mast under the action of Typhoon Dujuan. The response of the structure is reconstructed from using a full finite element model and an equivalent beam-column model. The wind load is modelled based on the measured wind speed and recommendations for high-rise structures. The nonlinear time response analysis is conducted using the Newton Raphson iteration procedure. Comparative studies on the measured and computed frequencies and acceleration responses show that the torsional vibration of the structure is significant particularly in the higher vibration modes after the first few bending modes. The equivalent model, in general, gives less accurate amplitude predictions than the full model because of the omission of torsional stiffness of the mast in the vibration analysis, but the root-mean-square value is close to the measured value in general with an error of less than 10%.