Open AccessAerodynamic study of a suspension bridge deck by CFD simulations, wind tunnel tests and full-scale observations
Author(s) -
Ibuki Kusano,
Etienne Cheynet,
Jasna Bogunović Jakobsen,
Jónas Þór Snæbjörnsson
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/1201/1/012007
Subject(s) - aerodynamics , wind tunnel , computational fluid dynamics , turbulence , strouhal number , full scale , reynolds averaged navier–stokes equations , subsonic and transonic wind tunnel , range (aeronautics) , reynolds number , aerospace engineering , mechanics , marine engineering , engineering , structural engineering , physics , transonic
Assessing the aerodynamic characteristics of long-span bridges is fundamental for their design. Depending on the terrain complexity and local wind conditions, episodes of large angles of attack (AoA) of 15° may be observed. However, such large AoAs ( above 10°) are often overlooked in the design process. This paper studies the aerodynamics properties of a flow around a single-box girder for a wide range of AoAs, from –20° to 20°, using numerical simulations. The simulations are based on a 2D unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) approach using the k − ω SST turbulence model with a Reynolds number of 1.6 × 10 5 . Numerically obtained aerodynamic static coefficients were compared to wind tunnel test data. The CFD results were generally in good agreement with the wind tunnel tests, especially for small AoAs and positive AoAs. More discrepancies were observed for large negative AoA, likely due to the limitation of modelling 3D railings with 2D simulations. The simulated velocity deficit downstream of the deck was consistent with the one measured in full-scale using short-range Doppler wind lidar instruments. Finally, the Strouhal number from the CFD simulations were in agreement with the value obtained from the full-scale data.