Title: Variation of aerodynamic coefficients with air flow parameters on long span bridge deck

Authors: Rohit Kumar Mittal; Vivek Nandan; Pabitra Ranjan Maiti

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi – 221005, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi – 221005, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi – 221005, India

Abstract: Wind load is critical for bridges with high strength to weight ratio and determined experimentally using wind tunnel study that involves huge expenditure and time. In this study, behaviour of bridge deck is analysed by changing air flow parameters considering the structure submerged in turbulent flow using k-ε turbulence model with boundary conditions calibrated to simulate neutral equilibrium atmospheric boundary layer. A computational model was considered to determine aerodynamic behaviour of bridge deck for different angle of attack of wind and results were compared with wind tunnel experiments keeping boundary conditions same. The aerodynamic behaviour of different bridge deck cross section are analysed using the computational model for different air flow parameters. The variation of aerodynamic coefficients are found and presented for box girder, plate girder, trapezoidal section and section of Great Belt East Bridge and attempt was made to select the optimum section to minimise the aerodynamic forces.

Keywords: angle of attack; aerodynamic coefficient; Great Belt East Bridge; GBEB; wind mean speed; drag force; lift force; air flow parameters; long span bridges; bridge decks; turbulence modelling; simulation; aerodynamics; box girder; plate girder; trapezoidal section.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTRUCTE.2016.077721

International Journal of Structural Engineering, 2016 Vol.7 No.3, pp.279 - 290

Received: 01 Aug 2015
Accepted: 27 Oct 2015

Published online: 13 Jul 2016 *

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