Transmission towers are structurally complex, which makes it challenging to choose the right place and number of sensors for health monitoring. In this paper, optimal sensor placement of a cat-head-type transmission tower is conducted by using the Effective Independent Method (EIM) and a method is proposed for calculating the minimum number of sensors for structural health monitoring by combining EIM and Modal Assurance Criterion (MAC). The method for calculating the number of sensors prescribed in this paper derives a curve that shows the relationship between MAC value and the number of sensors. It is found that the MAC value decreases with increase in the number of sensors. When the number of sensors reaches a certain threshold, the curve tends to stabilize. Then, the number of sensors corresponding to the minimum MAC is proposed as the minimum number of sensors. Through calculation, the minimum number of sensors of the cat-head-type transmission tower is obtained. Also, the optimal sensor placement results show that the position of a large number of sensors includes the position of a smaller number of sensors.

With the rapid advancement of offshore wind power, structural vibration induced by multi-source excitations in complex marine environments is a critical concern. This study developed a multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) dynamic model of an offshore wind turbine using a lumped mass approach, which was then reduced to a first-order linear system to improve frequency-domain analysis and optimization efficiency. Given the non-stationary, broadband nature of wind and wave loads, a band-pass filtering technique was applied to extract dominant frequency components, enabling linear modeling of excitations within primary modal ranges. The displacement response spectrum, derived via system transfer functions, served as the objective function for optimizing tuned mass damper (TMD) parameters. Both single TMD and multiple TMD (MTMD) strategies were designed and compared. A hierarchical particle swarm optimization (H-PSO) algorithm was proposed for MTMD tuning, using the optimized single TMD as an initial guess to enhance convergence and stability in high-dimensional spaces. The results showed that the frequency-domain optimization framework achieved a balance between accuracy and computational efficiency, significantly reducing structural responses in dominant modes and demonstrating strong potential for practical engineering applications.

The planetary bearing looseness fault can cause the planetary gear train to fail. Conventional modeling methods do not consider complex component-coupling relationships for fault feature analysis. As a result, a joint model is developed to examine the dominant relationship between planetary bearings and the planetary gear train. Firstly, the planetary bearing is modeled in the normal and fault states. Then, a refined joint planetary gear train dynamic model is constructed, which is composed of the planetary gears, the ring gear, the carrier, the sun gear, and the planetary bearings. Finally, the simulation results show that, when the planetary bearing is in the looseness fault state, its fault characteristic presents as the rotation frequency of the carrier and its harmonics. The on-site signal of a 2.0 MW wind turbine is used to verify the effectiveness of the model. The proposed model can provide the basis for the fault mechanism analysis and fault diagnosis of rolling bearing outer ring looseness.

The air-cooled island of air-cooled thermal power unit consists of dozens of cooling units with fans and their bridges. Its structure and excitation load are complex. The health status of the air-cooled island has an impact on the safe operation of thermal power unit. In this paper, an optimal placement of health monitoring sensor for bridge structure of air-cooled island is proposed based on effective independence method. Through the finite element analysis, the main mode shapes of the bridge structure were obtained. Based on this, a given number of sensors were optimally arranged according to the Fisher information matrix. Then the optimal placement of the health monitoring sensor for the bridge structure of air-cooled island was obtained. The modal guarantee criterion was used to evaluate the placement scheme. The result shows that the sensor placement scheme can ensure the accuracy of modal identification and effectively reflect the structural characteristics of the bridge structure of the air-cooled island. The result can provide a reference for the health monitoring of the bridge structure of air-cooled island.