Nowadays balanced cantilever construction plays an essential role as a sophisticated erection technique of bridges due to its economical and ecological advantages. Experience teaches that wind has a great importance with regard to this construction technique, but methods proposed by codes to take wind effects into account are still rather crude and, in most cases, completely lacking. Also research in this field is quite limited and aimed at studying only the longitudinal shear and the torque at the pier base, caused by the mean wind velocity and by the longitudinal turbulence actions over the deck. This paper advances the present solutions by developing a new procedure that takes into account all wind effects both on the deck and on the pier. The proposed model assumes the mean wind velocity as orthogonal to the bridge plane and considers the effects produced by all the three turbulence components and by the vortex shedding. The applications point out the role of each loading component on different bridge configurations and show that disregarding the presence of some effects may imply oversimplified results and relevant underestimations.

The steady state response of a torsionally coupled system with tuned mass dampers (TMDs) to external wind-induced harmonic excitation is presented. The torsionally coupled system is considered as one-way eccentric system. The eccentricity considered in the system is accidental eccentricity only. The performance of single tuned mass damper (TMD) optimally designed without considering the torsion is investigated for the torsionally coupled system and found that the effectiveness of a single TMD is significantly reduced due to torsion in the system. However, the design of TMD system without considering the torsion is only justified for torsionally stiff systems. Further, the optimum parameters of a single TMD considering the accidental eccentricity are obtained using numerical searching technique for different values of uncoupled torsional to lateral frequency ratio and aspect ratio of the system. The optimally designed single TMD system is found to be less effective for torsionally coupled system in comparison to uncoupled system. This is due to the fact that a torsionally coupled system has two natural frequencies of vibration, as a result, at least two TMDs are required which can control both lateral and torsional response of the system. The optimum damper parameters of different alternate arrangements such as (i) two identical TMDs placed at opposite corners, (ii) two independent TMDs and (iii) four TMDs are evaluated for minimum response of the system. The comparative performance of the above TMDs arrangements is also studied for both torsionally coupled and uncoupled systems. It is found that four TMDs arrangement is quite effective solution for vibration control of torsionally coupled system.

Rain-wind induced vibrations of cables are a challenging problem in the design of cable-stayed bridges. The precise excitation mechanism of the complex interaction between structure, wind and rain is still unknown. A theoretical model that is able to accurately simulate the observed phenomena is not available. This paper presents a mathematical model describing rain-wind induced vibrations as movement-induced vibrations using the quasi-steady strip theory. Both, the vibrations of the cable and the movement of the water rivulet on the cable surface can be described by the model including all geometrical and physical nonlinearities. The analysis using the stability and bifurcation theory shows that the model is capable of simulating the basic phenomena of the vibrations, such as dependence of wind velocity and cable damping. The results agree well with field data and wind tunnel tests. An extensive experimental study is currently performed to calibrate the parameters of the model.

Tsing Ma Bridge in Hong Kong is the longest suspension bridge in the world carrying both highway and railway. It has two H-shape concrete towers, each of which is composed of two reinforced concrete legs and four deep transverse prestressed concrete beams. A series of wind tunnel tests have been performed to measure the aerodynamic coefficients of the tower legs and transverse beams in various arrangements. A 1:100 scaled 3D rigid model of the full bridge tower assembled from various tower components has been constructed for different test cases. The aerodynamic coefficients of the lower and upper segments of the windward and leeward tower legs and those of the transverse beams at different levels, with and without the dummy bridge deck model, were measured as a function of yaw wind angle. The effects of wind interference among the tower components and the influence of the bridge deck on the tower aerodynamic coefficients were also investigated. The results achieved can be used as the pertinent data for the comparison of the computed and field-measured fully coupled buffeting responses of the entire bridge under yaw winds.

In recent years, high-strength, light-weight materials have been widely used in the construction of high-rise buildings. Such structures generally have flexible, low-damping characteristics. Consequently, wind-induced oscillation greatly affects the structural safety and the comfort of the building's occupants. In this research, wind tunnel experiments were carried out to study the wind-induced vibration of a building with a tuned liquid column damper (TLCD). Then, a model for predicting the aerodynamic response in the across-wind direction was generated. Finally, a computing procedure was developed for the analytical modeling of the structural oscillation in a building with a TLCD under the wind load. The model agrees substantially with the experimental results. Therefore, it may be used to accurately calculate the structural response. Results from this investigation show that the TLCD is more advantageous for reducing the across-wind vibration than the along-wind oscillation. When the across-wind aerodynamic effects are considered, the TLCD more effectively controls the aerodynamic response. Moreover, it is also more useful in suppressing the acceleration than the displacement in biaxial directions. As s result, TLCDs are effective devices for reducing the wind-induced vibration in buildings. Parametric studies have also been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the TLCD in suppressing the structural oscillation. This study may help engineers to more correctly predict the aerodynamic response of high-rise buildings as well as select the most appropriate TLCDs for reducing the structural vibration under the wind load. It may also improve the understanding of wind-structure interactions and wind resistant designs for high-rise buildings.