• Wind and Structures
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.309-319
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• 2021

The vortex-drift pattern over a girder surface, actually demonstrating the complex fluid-structure interactions between the structure and surrounding flow, is strongly correlated with the VIVs but has still not been elucidated and may be useful for modeling VIVs. The complex fluid-structure interactions between the structure and surrounding flow are considerably simplified in constructing a vortex model to describe the vortex-drift pattern characterized by the ratio of the vortex-drift velocity to the oncoming flow velocity, considering the aerodynamic work. A spring-suspended sectional model (SSSM) is used to measure the pressure in wind tunnel tests, and the aerodynamic parameters for a typical streamlined closed-box girder are obtained from the spatial distribution of the phase lags between the distributed aerodynamic forces at each pressure point and the vortex-excited forces (VEFs). The results show that the ratio of the vortex-drift velocity to the oncoming flow velocity is inversely proportional to the vibration amplitude in the lock-in region and therefore attributed to the "lock-in" phenomena of the VIVs. Installing spoilers on handrails can destroy the regular vortex-drift pattern along the girder surface and thus suppress vertical VIVs.