Downslope Gusty Wind Loading of Vehicles on Bridges
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 11
Abstract
Downslope crosswind bora gusts impacting vehicles represent a significant traffic safety issue, and vehicles on bridges are particularly vulnerable to such crosswinds. Wind tunnel experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of the vertical wind incidence angle and vehicle position on the resulting transient aerodynamic loads. When considering accident risk for the vehicle/infrastructure scenario investigated in this study, the higher risk for vehicles exists at lower vertical wind incidence angles up to 30° and closer to the upwind edge of the bridge deck with respect to steady aerodynamic loads. Shed vortices and wind gusting determined the unsteady aerodynamic loading of a vehicle on the bridge. Effects of shed vortices decreased at larger vertical wind incidence angles, with the wind gusts driving the unsteady aerodynamic loads. Difficulties associated with vehicle maneuvering and stability in the upwind traffic lane in terms of unsteady aerodynamic loading are expected to occur at the wind gusting frequency. Dynamic loading of vehicles in the downwind traffic lanes was due to shed vortices as a consequence of the bridge architecture and aerodynamic form of the vehicle.
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Acknowledgments
The first author acknowledges the support of the Fulbright Foundation and in part the University of Zagreb Grant No. 05206-2. Support for the remaining authors was provided in part by the Global Center of Excellence, Tokyo Polytechnic University, funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) under the project on load effects in transient flow conditions. Special thanks to Mr. Brent Bach for manufacturing the simulation hardware.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 20 • Issue 11 • November 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 1, 2014
Accepted: Nov 21, 2014
Published online: Apr 3, 2015
Discussion open until: Sep 3, 2015
Published in print: Nov 1, 2015
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