• Wind and Structures
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.293-308
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• 2021

For the past three decades a significant amount of research has been conducted on bridge flutter. Wind tunnel tests for a 2000 m class twin-box suspension bridge have revealed that a twin-box deck carrying 4 m tall 50% open area ratio wind screens at the deck edges achieved higher critical wind speeds for onset of flutter than a similar deck without wind screens. A result at odds with the well-known behavior for the mono-box deck. The wind tunnel tests also revealed that the critical flutter wind speed increased if the bridge deck assumed a nose-up twist relative to horizontal when exposed to high wind speeds - a phenomenon termed the "nose-up" effect. Static wind tunnel tests of this twin-box cross section revealed a positive moment coefficient at 0° angle of attack as well as a positive moment slope, ensuring that the elastically supported deck would always meet the mean wind flow at ever increasing mean angles of attack for increasing wind speeds. The aerodynamic action of the wind screens on the twin-box bridge girder is believed to create the observed nose-up aerodynamic moment at 0° angle of attack. The present paper reviews the findings of the wind tunnel tests with a view to gain physical insight into the "nose-up" effect and to establish a theoretical model based on numerical simulations allowing flutter predictions for the twin-box bridge girder.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제48권3호
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• pp.395-414
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• 2013

The present study fundamentally investigated the mechanical performance of the rib-stiffened super-wide bridge deck with twin box girders in concrete, which is a very popular application to efficiently widen the bridges with normal span. The shear lag effects of the specific cross-sections were firstly studied. The spatial stress distribution and local stiffness of the bridge deck with twin box girders were then investigated under several typical wheel load conditions. Meanwhile, a comparative study for the bridge deck with and without stiffening ribs was also carried out during the investigation; thereby, a design optimization for the stiffening ribs was further suggested. Finally, aiming at the preliminary design, an approximate methodology to manually calculate the bending moments of the rib-stiffened bridge deck was analytically proposed for engineers to quickly assess its performance. This rib-stiffened bridge deck with twin box girders can be widely applied for concrete (especially concrete cable-stayed) bridges with normal span, however, requiring a super-wide bridge width due to the traffic flow.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제31권1호
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• pp.31-41
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• 2020

A new type of bridge deck section consisting of four-box decks, two side decks for vehicular traffic lanes and two middle decks for railway traffic, has been experimentally investigated for determining its aerodynamic properties. The eight flutter derivatives were determined by the Iterative Least Squares (ILS) method for this new type of four-box deck model, with two windshields of 30 mm and 50 mm height respectively. Wind tunnel experiments were performed for angles of attack α = ±6°, ±4°, ±2° and 0° and Re numbers of 4.85×105 to 6.06×105 and it was found that the four-box deck with the 50 mm windshields had a better aerodynamic performance. Also, the results showed that the installation of the windshields reduced the values of the lift coefficient CL for the negative angles attack in the range of -6° to 0°, but the drag coefficient CD increased in the positive angle of attack range. However, galloping instability was not encountered for the tested reduced wind speeds, of up to 9.8. The aerodynamic force coefficients and the flutter derivatives for the four-box deck model were consistent with the results reported for the Messina triple-box bridge deck, but were different from those reported for the twin-box bridge decks.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.161-184
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• 2016

Long-span suspension bridges have evolved through the years and with them, the bridge girder decks improved as well, changing their shapes from standard box-deck girders to twin box and multi-box decks sections. The aerodynamic characteristics of the new generation of twin and multiple-decks are investigated nowadays, to provide the best design wind speeds and the optimum dimensions such bridges could achieve. The multi-box Megane bridge deck is one of the new generation bridge decks, consisting of two side decks for traffic lanes and two middle decks for railways, linked between them with connecting beams. Three-dimensional CFD simulations were performed by employing the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) algorithm with a standard Smagorinsky subgrid-scale model, for $Re=9.3{\times}10^7$ and angles of attack ${\alpha}=-4^{\circ}$, $-2^{\circ}$, $0^{\circ}$, $2^{\circ}$ and $4^{\circ}$. Also, a wind tunnel experiment was performed for a scaled model, 1:80 of the Megane bridge deck section, for $Re=5.1{\times}10^5$ and the aerodynamic static coefficients were found to be in good agreement with the results obtained from the CFD-LES model. However the aerodynamic coefficients determined individually, from the CFD-LES model, for each of the traffic and railway decks of the Megane bridge, varied significantly, especially for the downstream traffic deck. Also the pressure distribution and the effect of the spacing between the connecting beams, on the wind speed profiles showed a slight increase in turbulence above the downstream traffic and railway decks.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제30권4호
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• pp.367-378
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• 2020

Two-dimensional Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (DDES) was carried out to investigate the uniform flow over a twin-box bridge deck (TBBD) with various gap ratios of L/C=5.1%, 12.8%, 25.6%, 38.5%, 73.3% and 108.2% (L: the gap-width between two girders, C: the chord length of a single girder) at Reynolds number, Re=4×104. The aerodynamic coefficients of the prototype deck with gap ratio of 73.3% obtained from the present simulation were compared with the previous experimental and numerical data for different attack angles to validate the present numerical method. Particular attention is devoted to the fluctuating pressure distribution and forces, shear layer reattachment position, wake velocity and flow pattern in order to understand the effects of gap ratio on dynamic flow interaction with the twin-box bridge deck. The flow structure is sensitive to the gap, thus a change in L/C thus leads to single-side shedding regime at L/C≤25.6%, and co-shedding regime at L/C≥35.8% distinguished by drastic changes in flow structure and vortex shedding. The gap-ratio-dependent Strouhal number gradually increases from 0.12 to 0.27, though the domain frequencies of vortices shedding from two girders are identical. The mean and fluctuating pressure distributions is significantly influenced by the flow pattern, and thus the fluctuating lift force on two girders increases or decreases with increasing of L/C in the single-side shedding and co-shedding regime, respectively. In addition, the flow mechanisms for the variation in aerodynamic performance with respect to gap ratios are discussed in detail.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.327-347
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• 2015

This paper investigates the effects of Reynolds number (Re) on the aerodynamic characteristics of a twin-deck bridge. A 1:36 scale sectional model of a twin girder bridge was tested using the Wall of Wind (WOW) open jet wind tunnel facility at Florida International University (FIU). Static tests were performed on the model, instrumented with pressure taps and load cells, at high wind speeds with Re ranging from $1.3{\times}10^6$ to $6.1{\times}10^6$ based on the section width. Results show that the section was almost insensitive to Re when pitched to negative angles of attack. However, mean and fluctuating pressure distributions changed noticeably for zero and positive wind angles of attack while testing at different Re regimes. The pressure results suggested that with the Re increase, a larger separation bubble formed on the bottom surface of the upstream girder accompanied with a narrower wake region. As a result, drag coefficient decreased mildly and negative lift coefficient increased. Flow modification due to the Re increase also helped in distributing forces more equally between the two girders. The bare deck section was found to be prone to vortex shedding with limited dependence on the Re. Based on the observations, vortex mitigation devices attached to the bottom surface were effective in inhibiting vortex shedding, particularly at lower Re regime.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.317-343
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• 2013

When evaluating flutter instability, it is often assumed that incident wind is normal to the longitudinal axis of a bridge and the flutter critical wind speed estimated from this direction is most unfavorable. However, the results obtained in this study via oblique sectional model tests of four typical types of bridge decks show that the lowest flutter critical wind speeds often occur in the yaw wind cases. The four types of bridge decks tested include a flat single-box deck, a flat ${\Pi}$-shaped thin-wall deck, a flat twin side-girder deck, and a truss-stiffened deck with and without a narrow central gap. The yaw wind effect could reduce the critical wind speed by about 6%, 2%, 8%, 7%, respectively, for the above four types of decks within a wind inclination angle range between $-3^{\circ}$ and $3^{\circ}$, and the yaw wind angles corresponding to the minimal critical wind speeds are between $4^{\circ}$ and $15^{\circ}$. It was also found that the flutter critical wind speed varies in an undulate manner with the increase of yaw angle, and the variation pattern is largely dependent on both deck shape and wind inclination angle. Therefore, the cosine rule based on the mean wind decomposition is generally inapplicable to the estimation of flutter critical wind speed of long-span bridges under skew winds. The unfavorable effect of yaw wind on the flutter instability of long-span bridges should be taken into consideration seriously in the future practice, especially for supper-long span bridges in strong wind regions.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제26권5호
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• pp.305-315
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• 2018

A numerical study based on a delayed detached eddy simulation (DDES) is conducted to investigate the aerodynamic mechanism behind the suppression of vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) of twin box girders by central grids, which have an inhibition effect on VIVs, as evidenced by the results of section model wind tunnel tests. The mean aerodynamic force coefficients with different attack angles are compared with experimental results to validate the numerical method. Next, the flow structures around the deck and the aerodynamic forces on the deck are analyzed to enhance the understanding of the occurrence of VIVs and the suppression of VIVs by the application of central grids. The results show that shear layers are separated from the upper railings and lower overhaul track of the upstream girder and induce large-scale vortices in the gap that cause periodical lift forces of large amplitude acting on the downstream girder, resulting in VIVs of the bridge deck. However, the VIVs are apparently suppressed by the central grids because the vortices in the central gap are reduced into smaller vortices and become weaker, causing slightly fluctuating lift forces on the deck. In addition, the mean lift force on the deck is mainly caused by the upstream girder, whereas the fluctuating lift force is mainly caused by the downstream girder.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제28권4호
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• pp.255-270
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• 2019

Aerodynamic configurations of bridge decks have significant effects on the aerostatic torsional divergence and flutter forsuper long-span bridges, which are onset for selection of suitable bridge decksfor those bridges. Based on a cable-stayed bridge with double main spans of 1500 m, considering typical twin-box, stiffening truss and closed-box section, which are the most commonly used form of bridge decks and assumed that the rigidity of those section is completely equivalent, are utilized to investigate the effects of aerodynamic configurations of bridge decks on aerodynamic instability performance comprised of the aerostatic torsional divergence and flutter, by means of wind tunnel tests and numerical calculations, including three-dimensional (3D) multimode flutter analysis and nonlinear aerostatic analysis. Regarding the aerostatic torsional divergence, the results obtained in this study show twin-box section is the best, closed-box section the second-best, and the stiffening truss section the worst. Regarding the flutter, the flutter stability of the twin-box section is far better than that of the stiffening truss and closed-box section. Furthermore, wind-resistance design depends on the torsional divergence for the twin-box and stiffening truss section. However, there are obvious competitive relationships between the aerostatic torsional divergence and flutter for the closed-box section. Flutter occur before aerostatic instability at initial attack angle of $+3^{\circ}$ and $0^{\circ}$, while the aerostatic torsional divergence occur before flutter at initial attack angle of $-3^{\circ}$. The twin-box section is the best in terms of both aerostatic and flutter stability among those bridge decks. Then mechanisms of aerostatic torsional divergence are revealed by tracking the cable forces synchronous with deformation of the bridge decksin the instability process. It was also found that the onset wind velocities of these bridge decks are very similar at attack angle of $-3^{\circ}$. This indicatesthat a stable triangular structure made up of the cable planes, the tower, and the bridge deck greatly improves the aerostatic stability of the structure, while the aerodynamic effects associated with the aerodynamic configurations of the bridge decks have little effects on the aerostatic stability at initial attack angle of $-3^{\circ}$. In addition, instability patterns of the bridge depend on both the initial attack angles and aerodynamic configurations of the bridge decks. This study is helpful in determining bridge decksfor super long-span bridges in future.

• 한국강구조학회 논문집
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.333-345
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• 2008

프리캐스트 콘크리트 바닥판 교량의 적용이 2거더 교량이나 개구제형 강박스 교량으로 확대되고 있다. 소수거더교에 프리캐스트 바닥판 교량의 적용에서 가장 어려운 점은 완전합성을 확보하기 위해 필요한 전단연결재의 배치이다. 좁은 영역에 많은 연결재를 배치해야 하기 때문에 프리캐스트 바닥판의 단면 손실이 커서 철근의 배치가 어렵게 된다. 이 논문에서는 현재 설계 기준에서 제시하고 있는 스터드 전단연결재의 최소 간격보다 좁은 연결재 간격을 가질 경우의 극한 강도 특성을 정적 실험을 통해 평가하였다. 실험결과로부터 최소 간격보다 좁은 간격으로 배치할 경우에 현재의 설계기준 강도보다 낮은 극한 강도를 발현하는 것으로 나타났고 프리캐스트 슬래브의 보강 혹은 포켓부의 부분보강의 효과로 인해 강도 증진이 나타났다. 그룹 스터드 전단연결부의 설계는 연결재 전단강도와 콘크리트 슬래브의 강도의 상대적인 비로부터 파괴모드를 예측하고 연결재 파괴를 유도할 수 있도록 이루어져야 한다. 실험결과로부터 스터드 간격을 고려한 그룹 스터드 전단연결부의 극한강도에 대한 경험식을 제안하였다. 피로실험을 수행한 결과로부터 이 연구의 실험범위내에서는 그룹스터드 전단연결부의 피로강도 감소가 나타나지 않는 것으로 밝혀졌다. 연구결과를 활용하여 프리캐스트 바닥판의 상세를 개선하였다.