Abstract
As a step toward obtaining aeroelastic characteristics of suspension bridges by numerical simulations instead of costly wind-tunnel or on-site tests, fluid-structure interaction analysis of a girder bridge section in a uniform wind has been conducted and its accuracy and reliability as a design tool for wind stability of bridges have been examined. The two-degree motion of rigid-body girder sections undergoing heaving and torsional vibrations has been simulatd by a Large-eddy Simulation (LES) method. The LES methods which is based on the non-inertial coordinates fixed on moving body, had been validated in analyzing aerodynamic forces and lateral vibration of a square cylinder. Comparing with corresponding wind-tunnel test results, it has been found that the differences in vibration characteroistics due to different on-coming wind speeds, different section geometries and the effects of various appendicies are reproduced well. Some descrepancies of the simulated results from the experiments are found but they are mostly due to the inadequacy of computational grid resolution, which can be improved by using finer grids and more powerful computing system.
