• Wind and Structures
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• 제30권2호
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• pp.119-131
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• 2020

A butterfly web girder is a box-shaped girder with discretely distributed side openings along the spanwise direction. Until now, there have been few studies related to the aerodynamic performance of the butterfly web bridge. The objective of the current study was to clarify the effects of the side openings on the aerodynamic performance of the girder. Two butterfly web girders with side ratios B/D = 3.24 and 5, where B is the girder width and D is the depth, were examined through a series of wind tunnel tests. A comparison of the results for butterfly web girders and conventional box girders of the same shape confirmed that the side openings stabilized the vortex-induced vibration and galloping when B/D = 3.24, whereas the vortex-induced vibration and torsional flutter were stabilized when B/D = 5. The change in the flow field due to the side openings contributed to the stabilization against the vibration. These findings not only confirmed the good aerodynamic performance of the butterfly web bridge but also provided a new method to stabilize the box girder against aerodynamic instabilities via discretely distributed side openings.