Experimental Study on Aeroelastic Instability of Spherical Inflatable Membrane Structures with a Large Rise–Span Ratio

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Authors have carried out to study the displacement and strain response characteristics of the structure under different wind speeds based on the Aeroelastic model in wind tunnel. The paper is good and results seem to be authenticated to publish. But, the paper cannot be accepted in the present form due to some shortcoming. In order to accept this manuscript, revise the manuscript in the following comments.

·         Abstract is too general. The novelty should be highlighted over the past similar work. Quantification on the experimental results should also be included.

·         Provide citation for Fig. 1.

·         The objective of the paper is not clear. Please discuss the objective of the work in a very concise way in regards to the literature gap at the end of introduction.

·         There is no space provided between number and unit in many places. (eg. 2m/s written as 2 m/s)

·         Experimental Error analysis is not incorporated. There should be discussion on the uncertainty in the experimentation.

·         Correct the legends in Fig. 16.  

·         Conclusions are too general; quantification of results should be included.

·         There are various grammatical and typo errors in the manuscript. These errors have been highlighted in the attached PDF of the manuscript.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Editors and Reviewer:

Thank you for your letter and for the reviewer’s comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Experimental study on aeroelastic instability of spherical inflatable membrane structures with a large rise-span ratio” (ID: 1864983). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are listed in the document‘author-coverletter-21708496.v1.docx’.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The wind induced aero-elastic instability mechanism of air supported membrane structure is very complex. Experimental studies on this topic is highly desired. This paper presents an experimental study on an aero-elastic hemispherical inflatable membrane models. The Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technology was used to measure the wind-induced displacement and strain responses of the structure. The characteristics of the aero-elastic response and instability was discussed in the paper. The present study has an important theoretical value as well as great engineering significance in the disaster prevention and mitigation of air-supported membrane structures. There are still some minor problems that need to be revised. Minor revision is required. After the revisions are made according to the requirements, it is recommended to be accepted directly.

 

The following points need to be addressed，

 

1）The change of internal pressure of air supported membrane structure under wind load is also very important. In Figure 2, the internal pressure measuring equipment is marked, indicating that the change of internal pressure of the structure was measured in the test. Please provide a photo of the device. The description of equipment parameters, and the measurement results of internal pressure should also be provided in the manuscript.

 

2) In Figure 15, the frequency values of the 1st mode and the 2nd mode are equal. What is the difference between them? Please elaborate the aspect in detail and explain how to distinguish the 1st mode and the 2nd mode vibration in the test.

 

3) In Figure 16, in the power spectrum analysis, the frequency values of 1st and 2nd order modes obviously increase with the increase of wind speed. Please briefly state the reasons in the context.

 

4) In the experiment, two kinds of displacement measuring devices (DIC and Laser equipment) were used to measure the displacement at the top and leeward of the model. Why are two kinds of devices used to measure the displacement? Are the two measuring results consistent?

 

5) The definition and wind speed of aero-elastic instability of the model are given In this paper. Generally, aero-elastic instability is closely related to the Reynolds number, and the dimensionless critical wind speed is more valuable. It is suggested that Reynolds number and dimensionless wind speed of the structural instability should be given.

Author Response

 

Dear Editors and Reviewer:

Thank you for your letter and for the reviewer’s comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Experimental study on aeroelastic instability of spherical inflatable membrane structures with a large rise-span ratio” (ID: 1864983). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are listed in the document‘author-coverletter-21888249.v1.docx’

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf