STABILITY AND RELIABILITY OF LONG-SPAN BRIDGE STRUCTURES

Abstract

Introduction: Despite the fact that, in recent years, the construction of long-span bridges has been extensively developed, cases of bridge structures buckling in wind still occur, but the issue of their interaction with wind has not been sufficiently studied. Purpose of the study: We aimed to improve the structural integrity and operational safety of long-span bridge structures by conducting a computational and experimental study on the effect of various designs of aerodynamic dampers on the aerodynamic stability of such structures. Methods: The study was performed in two stages. At the first stage, preliminary two-dimensional numerical modeling was conducted to study the effect of various designs of aerodynamic dampers on the wind flow over selected bridge spans. Based on the results of the preliminary two-dimensional numerical modeling, we chose the most effective designs of aerodynamic dampers and made their models to conduct experimental studies on aerodynamic stability on a special test bench. Results: Based on the obtained computational and experimental results, we analyzed the effectiveness of various designs of aerodynamic deflectors and fairings used to improve the aerodynamic stability of the standard bridge structure under consideration. Discussion: For a span with one main girder, we determined the deflector design that reduces the vibration amplitude at high wind velocities.

Keywords

• bridge structures
• aerodynamics
• aerodynamic stability
• experimental studies
• numerical modeling
• damping
• deflector
• fairing.