With the development of economy and construction technology, more and more bridges are built in complex mountainous areas. Accurate assessment of wind parameters is important in bridge construction at complex terrain. In order to investigate the wind characteristics in the high-altitude difference area, a complex mountain terrain model with the scale of 1:2000 was built. By using the method of wind tunnel tests, the study of wind characteristics including mean wind characteristics and turbulence characteristics was carried out. The results show: The wind direction is affected significant by the topography, the dominant wind direction is usually parallel to the river. Due to the sheltering effect of the mountain near the bridge, the wind speed and wind attack angle along the bridge are both uneven which is different from that at flat terrain. In addition, different from flat terrain, the wind attack angle is mostly negative. The wind profiles obey exponential law and logarithmic law. And the fitting coefficient is consistent with the code which means that it is feasible to use the method of wind tunnel test to simulate complex terrain. As for turbulence characteristics, the turbulence intensity is also related to the topography. Increases sheltering effect of mountain increases the degree of breaking up the large-scale vortices, thereby increasing the turbulence intensity. Also, the value of turbulence intensity ratio is different from the recommended values in the code. The conclusions of this study can provide basis for further wind resistance design of the bridge.

This paper presents a study on the effectiveness of the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) technique for reconstruction of wind pressure field as applied to a cylindrical shell roof based on simultaneously measured wind pressure data. The influence of wind loading mode truncation on the statistics of dynamic pressures and wind load effects are investigated. The results showed that truncation of higher wind loading modes can have more noticeable influence on the maximum and minimum pressures that the standard derivation (STD) values. The truncation primarily affects the high-frequency content of the pressures. Estimation of background response using wind loading modes is more effective than the use of traditional structural modal analysis.

The characteristics of winds associated with tropical cyclones are of great significance in many engineering fields. This paper presents an investigation of wind characteristics over a coastal urban terrain based on field measurements collected from multiple cup anemometers and ultrasonic anemometers equipped at 13 height levels on a 356-m-high meteorological tower in Shenzhen during severe Typhoon Hato. Several wind quantities, including wind spectrum, gust factor, turbulence intensity and length scale as well as wind profile, are presented and discussed. Specifically, the probability distributions of fluctuating wind speeds are analyzed in connection with the normal distribution and the generalized extreme value distribution. The von Karman spectral model is found to be suitable to depict the energy distributions of three-dimensionally fluctuating winds. Gust factors, turbulence intensity and length scale are determined and discussed. Moreover, this paper presents the wind profiles measured during the typhoon, and a comparative study of the vertical distribution of wind speeds from the field measurements and existing empirical models is performed. The influences of the topography features and wind speeds on the wind profiles were investigated based on the field-measured wind records. In general, the empirical models can provide reasonable predictions for the measured wind speed profiles over a typical coastal urban area during a severe typhoon.

The blockage effect on the aerodynamic characteristics of tall buildings is a fundamental issue in wind tunnel test but has rarely been addressed. To evaluate the blockage effects on the aerodynamic forces on a square tall building and flow field peripherally, large eddy simulations (LES) were performed on a 3D square cylinder with an aspect ratio of 6:1 under the uniform smooth inflow and turbulent atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) inflow generated by the narrowband synthesis random flow generator (NSRFG). First, a basic case at a blockage ratio (BR) of 0.8% was conducted to validate the adopted numerical methodology. Subsequently, simulations were systematically performed at 6 different BRs. The simulation results were compared in detail to illustrate the differences induced by the blockage, and the mechanism of the blockage effects under turbulent inflow was emphatically analysed. The results reveal that the pressure coefficients, the aerodynamic forces, and the Strouhal number increase monotonically with BRs. Additionally, the increase of BR leads to more coherence of the turbulent structures and the higher intensity of the vortices in the vicinity of the building. Moreover, the blockage effects on the aerodynamic forces and flow field are more significant under smooth inflow than those under turbulent inflow.

Wake-induced aerodynamics of yawed circular cylinders with smooth and grooved surfaces in a tandem arrangement was studied. This pair of cylinders represent sections of stay-cables with smooth surfaces and high-voltage power conductors with grooved surfaces that are vulnerable to flow-induced structural failure. The study provides some insight for a better understanding of wake-induced loads and galloping problem of bundled cables. All experiments in this study were conducted using a pair of stationary section models of circular cylinders in a wind tunnel subjected to uniform and smooth flow. The aerodynamic force coefficients and vortex-shedding frequency of the downstream model were extracted from the surface pressure distribution. For measurement, polished aluminum tubes were used as smooth cables; and hollow tubes with a helically grooved surface were used as power conductors. The aerodynamic properties of the downstream model were captured at wind speeds of about 6-23 m/s (Reynolds number of 5×10⁴ to 2.67×10⁵ for smooth cable and 2×10⁴ to 1.01×10⁵ for grooved cable) and yaw angles ranging from 0° to 45° while the upstream model was fixed at the various spacing between the two model cylinders. The results showed that the Strouhal number of yawed cable is less than the non-yawed case at a given Reynolds number, and its value is smaller than the Strouhal number of a single cable. Additionally, compared to the single smooth cable, it was observed that there was a reduction of drag coefficient of the downstream model, but no change in a drag coefficient of the downstream grooved case in the range of Reynolds number in this study.

The objective of this work was to investigate the interference effects of two-parallel bridge decks on aerodynamic coefficients, vortex-induced vibration, flutter instability and flutter derivatives. The two bridges have significant difference in cross-sections, dynamic properties, and flutter speeds of each isolate bridge. The aerodynamic static tests and aeroelastic tests were performed in TU-AIT boundary layer wind tunnel in Thammasat University (Thailand) with sectional models in a 1:90 scale. Three configuration cases, including the new bridge stand-alone (case 1), the upstream new bridge and downstream existing bridge (case 2), and the downstream new bridge and the upstream existing bridge (case 3), were selected in this study. The covariance-driven stochastic subspace identification technique (SSI-COV) was applied to identify aerodynamic parameters (i.e., natural frequency, structural damping and state space matrix) of the decks. The results showed that, interference effects of two bridges decks on aerodynamic coefficients result in the slightly reduction of the drag coefficient of case 2 and 3 when compared with case 1. The two parallel configurations of the bridge result in vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) and significantly lower the flutter speed compared with the new bridge alone. The huge torsional motion from upstream new bridge (case 2) generated turbulent wakes flow and resulted in vertical aerodynamic damping H1^* of existing bridge becomes zero at wind speed of 72.01 m/s. In this case, the downstream existing bridge was subjected to galloping oscillation induced by the turbulent wake of upstream new bridge. The new bridge also results in significant reduction of the flutter speed of existing bridge from the 128.29 m/s flutter speed of the isolated existing bridge to the 75.35 m/s flutter speed of downstream existing bridge.

The existence of a dam has potential effects on the surrounding wind environment especially when it is located in mountainous areas. In this situation, the long-span bridge over the reservoir can easily be exposed to non-uniform incoming flows, affecting its wind-resistance performance. This paper presents a study on the aerostatic stability of such a bridge. Wind tunnel tests were first carried out to investigate the wind environment above a mountainous reservoir. The results show that the angle of attack and the wind speed along the bridge axis show obvious non-uniform characteristics, which is related to the inflow direction. When winds come from the south where the river is winding, the angle of attack varies along the span direction significantly. The finite element model for the bridge was established using ANSYS software, and effects of non-uniform wind loads on the aerostatic stability were computed. Non-uniform angle of attack and wind speed are unfavorable to the aerostatic stability of the bridge, especially the former. When the combined action of non-uniform angle of attack and wind speed is considered, the critical wind speed of aerostatic instability is further reduced. Moreover, the aerostatic stability of the bridge is closely related to the dam height.

Robust semi-active vibration control of wind turbines using tuned mass dampers (TMDs) is a promising technique. This study investigates a 1.5 megawatt wind turbine controlled by eight different types of tuned mass damper systems of equal mass: a passive TMD, a semi-active varying-spring TMD, a semi-active varying-damper TMD, a semi-active varying-damper-and-spring TMD, as well as these four damper systems paired with an additional smaller passive TMD near the mid-point of the tower. The mechanism and controllers for each of these TMD systems are explained, such as employing magnetorheological dampers for the varying-damper TMD cases. The turbine is modelled as a lumped-mass 3D finite element model. The uncontrolled and controlled turbines are subjected to loading and operational cases including service wind loads on operational turbines, seismic loading with service wind on operational turbines, and high-intensity storm wind loads on parked turbines. The displacement and acceleration responses of the tower at the first and second mode shape maxima were used as the performance indicators. Ultimately, it was found that while all the semi-active TMD systems outperformed the passive systems, it was the semi-active varying-damper-and-spring system that was found to be the most effective overall - capable of controlling vibrations about as effectively with only half the mass as a passive TMD. It was also shown that by reducing the mass of the TMD and adding a second smaller TMD below, the vibrations near the mid-point could be greatly reduced at the cost of slightly increased vibrations at the tower top.