• Wind and Structures
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.427-443
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• 2024

By using a computational program of three-dimensional aerostatic and aerodynamic stability analysis of long-span bridges under skew wind, the dynamic characteristics and structural stability(including the aerostatic and aerodynamic stability) of a three-tower cable-stayed-suspension hybrid bridge with main span of 1 400 meters are investigated numerically under skew wind, and the skew wind and aerostatic effects on the aerostatic and aerodynamic stability of three-tower cable-stayedsuspension hybrid bridge are ascertained. The results show that the three-tower cable-stayed-suspension hybrid bridge is a longspan structure with greater flexibility, and it is more susceptible to the wind action. The aerostatic instability of three-tower cable-stayed-suspension hybrid bridges is characterized by the coupling of vertical bending and torsion of the girder, and the skew wind does not affect the aerostatic instability mode. The skew wind has positive or negative effects on the aerostatic stability of the bridge, the influence is between -5.38% and 4.64%, and in most cases, it reduces the aerostatic stability of the bridge. With the increase of wind yaw angle, the critical wind speed of aerostatic instability does not vary as the cosine rule as proposed by the skew wind decomposition method, the skew wind decomposition method may overestimate the aerostatic stability, and the maximum overestimation is 16.7%. The flutter critical wind speed fluctuates with the increase of wind yaw angle, and it may reach to the minimum value under the skew wind. The skew wind has limited effect on the aerodynamic stability of three-tower cable-stayed-suspension hybrid bridge, however the aerostatic effect significantly reduces the aerodynamic stability of the bridge under skew wind, the reduction is between 3.66% and 21.86%, with an overall average drop of 11.59%. The combined effect of skew and static winds further reduces the critical flutter wind speed, the decrease is between 7.91% and 19.37%, with an overall average decrease of 11.85%. Therefore, the effects of skew and static winds must be comprehensively considered in the aerostatic and aerodynamic stability analysis of three-tower cable-stayed-suspension hybrid bridges.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.353-369
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• 2017

Flutter is a dangerous phenomenon encountered in flexible structures subjected to aerodynamic forces. This includes aircraft, buildings and bridges. Flutter occurs as a result of interactions between aerodynamic, stiffness, and inertia forces on a structure. In an aircraft, as the speed of the flow increases, there may be a point at which the structural damping is insufficient to damp out the motion which is increasing due to aerodynamic energy being added to the structure. This vibration can cause structural failure, and therefore considering flutter characteristics is an essential part of designing an aircraft. Scientists and engineers studied flutter and developed theories and mathematical tools to analyze the phenomenon. Strip theory aerodynamics, beam structural models, unsteady lifting surface methods (e.g., Doublet-Lattice) and finite element models expanded analysis capabilities. Periodic Structures have been in the focus of research for their useful characteristics and ability to attenuate vibration in frequency bands called "stop-bands". A periodic structure consists of cells which differ in material or geometry. As vibration waves travel along the structure and face the cell boundaries, some waves pass and some are reflected back, which may cause destructive interference with the succeeding waves. This may reduce the vibration level of the structure, and hence improve its dynamic performance. In this paper, for the first time, we analyze the flutter characteristics of a wing with a periodic change in its sandwich construction. The new technique preserves the external geometry of the wing structure and depends on changing the material of the sandwich core. The periodic analysis and the vibration response characteristics of the model are investigated using a finite element model for the wing. Previous studies investigating the dynamic bending response of a periodic sandwich beam in the absence of flow have shown promising results.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.441-462
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• 2012

This article presents theoretical investigations on techniques for the improvement of the dynamic characteristics of slender bridges under wind action. Aerodynamically effective control shields are applied as controlled actuators. The first part of the article describes the modelling of the uncontrolled aeroelastic system. Acting aerodynamic forces are consistently characterised using linear time-invariant transfer elements in terms of rational functions. On this basis, two configuration levels of the uncontrolled system are represented with linear time-invariant state-space models and investigated. The second part of the article addresses controller design and the behaviour of the controlled aeroelastic system. Both fundamental limits for stabilisation and the efficiency for attenuating the influence of gusts are described for different actuator mechanisms. The results are derived and discussed with methods of control theory.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.457-474
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• 2009

Techniques for stabilising slender bridges under wind loads are presented in this article. A mathematically consistent description of the acting aerodynamic forces is essential when investigating these ideas. Against this background, motion-induced aerodynamic forces are characterised using a linear time-invariant transfer element in terms of rational functions. With the help of these functions, the aeroelastic system can be described in the form of a linear, time-invariant state-space model. It is shown that the divergence wind speed constitutes an upper bound for the application of the selected mechanical actuators. Even active control with full state feedback cannot overcome this limitation. The results are derived and explained with methods of control theory.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.41-58
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• 2000

According to research currently developed by several authors (including the present ones) a multimode approach to the aeroelastic instability can be appropriate for suspension bridges with very long span and so with close natural frequencies. Extending that research, this paper deals in particular with: i) the role of along-wind modes, underlined also by means of the flutter mode representation; ii) the effects of a variation of the mean wind speed along the span. A characterisation of the response in the time domain by means of an energetic approach is also discussed.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.355-369
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• 2022

Section model test, as the most commonly used method to evaluate the aerostatic and aeroelastic performances of long-span bridges, may be carried out under different conditions of incoming wind speed, geometric scale and wind tunnel facilities, which may lead to potential Reynolds number (Re) effect, model scaling effect and wind tunnel scale effect, respectively. The Re effect and scale effect on aerostatic force coefficients and aeroelastic characteristics of streamlined bridge decks were investigated via 1:100 and 1:60 scale section model tests. The influence of auxiliary facilities was further investigated by comparative tests between a bare deck section and the deck section with auxiliary facilities. The force measurement results over a Re region from about 1×10⁵ to 4×10⁵ indicate that the drag coefficients of both deck sections show obvious Re effect, while the pitching moment coefficients have weak Re dependence. The lift coefficients of the smaller scale models have more significant Re effect. Comparative tests of different scale models under the same Re number indicate that the static force coefficients have obvious scale effect, which is even more prominent than the Re effect. Additionally, the scale effect induced by lower model length to wind tunnel height ratio may produce static force coefficients with smaller absolute values, which may be less conservative for structural design. The results with respect to flutter stability indicate that the aerodynamic-damping-related flutter derivatives 𝘈^*₂ and 𝐴^*₁𝐻^*₃ have opposite scale effect, which makes the overall scale effect on critical flutter wind speed greatly weakened. The most significant scale effect on critical flutter wind speed occurs at +3° wind angle of attack, which makes the small-scale section models give conservative predictions.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.243-253
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• 2022

The conformal mapping method (CMM) has been broadly exploited in the study of fluid flows over airfoils and other research areas, yet it's hard to find relevant research in bridge engineering. This paper explores the feasibility of CMM in streamlined box girder bridges. Firstly, the mapping function transforming a unit circle to the streamlined box girder was solved by CMM. Subsequently, the potential flow solution of aerostatic pressure on the streamlined box girder was obtained and was compared with numerical simulation results. Finally, the aerostatic pressure attained by CMM was utilized to estimate the aerostatic coefficient and flutter performance of the streamlined box girder. The results indicate that the solution of the aerostatic pressure by CMM on the windward side is satisfactory within a small angle of attack. Considering the windward aerostatic pressure and coefficient of correction, CMM can be employed to estimate the rate of change of the lift and moment coefficients with angle of attack and the influence of the geometric shape of the streamlined box girder on flutter performance.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.46-57
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• 2013

Flutter stability and buffeting response have been the topics of most concern in the design state of long-span suspension bridges. Among approaches towards the aerodynamic stability, the aerodynamic-based control method which uses control surfaces to generate forces counteracting the unstable excitations has shown to be promising. This study focused on the mechanically controlled system using flaps; two flaps were attached on both sides of a bridge deck and were driven by the motions of the bridge deck. When the flaps moved, the overall cross section of the bridge deck containing these flaps was continuously changing. As a consequence, the aerodynamic forces also changed. The efficiency of the control was studied through the numerical simulation and experimental investigations. The values of quasi-steady forces, together with the experimental aerodynamic force coefficients, were proposed in the simulation. The results showed that the passive flap control can, with appropriate motion of the flaps, solve the aerodynamic instability. The efficiency of the flap control on the full span of a simple suspension bridge was also carried out. The mode-by-mode technique was applied for the investigation. The results revealed that the efficiency of the flap control relates to the mode number, the installed location of the flap, and the flap length.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.133-151
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• 2011

For a detailed investigation of the dynamic behaviour of slender bridges under wind action especially the motion-induced fluid forces should be available not only for harmonic motions but also for more general ones. If linear transfer behaviour is assumed, the force-displacement relation for almost arbitrary motions can be handled in the frequency domain using aerodynamic transfer functions. In aerospace engineering as well as in bridge engineering, these functions are usually approximated by special kinds of complex-valued rational functions which depend on complex frequencies. The quality of this approximation is evaluated for several bridge cross sections in this article. It is shown that rational functions are for some sections scarcely suitable to realistically represent the transfer behaviour of motion-induced aerodynamic forces for arbitrarily complex frequencies.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.381-397
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• 2018

Nonlinear behavior in fluid-structure interaction (FSI) of bridge decks becomes increasingly significant for modern bridges with increasing spans, larger flexibility and new aerodynamic deck configurations. Better understanding of the nonlinear aeroelasticity of bridge decks and further development of reduced-order nonlinear models for the aeroelastic forces become necessary. In this paper, the amplitude-dependent and neutral angle dependent nonlinearities of the motion-induced loads are further highlighted by series of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. An effort has been made to investigate a semi-analytical time-domain model of the nonlinear motion induced loads on the deck, which enables nonlinear time domain simulations of the aeroelastic responses of the bridge deck. First, the computational schemes used here are validated through theoretically well-known cases. Then, static aerodynamic coefficients of the Great Belt East Bridge (GBEB) cross section are evaluated at various angles of attack, leading to the so-called nonlinear backbone curves. Flutter derivatives of the bridge are identified by CFD simulations using forced harmonic motion of the cross-section with various frequencies. By varying the amplitude of the forced motion, it is observed that the identified flutter derivatives are amplitude-dependent, especially for $A^*_2$ and $H^*_2$ parameters. Another nonlinear feature is observed from the change of hysteresis loop (between angle of attack and lift/moment) when the neutral angles of the cross-section are changed. Based on the CFD results, a semi-analytical time-domain model for describing the nonlinear motion-induced loads is proposed and calibrated. This model is based on accounting for the delay effect with respect to the nonlinear backbone curve and is established in the state-space form. Reasonable agreement between the results from the semi-analytical model and CFD demonstrates the potential application of the proposed model for nonlinear aeroelastic analysis of bridge decks.