Aerodynamic Study on a Heavy Truck Passing by a Bridge Pylon under Crosswinds Using CFD
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 23, Issue 9
Abstract
High-sided vehicles experience sudden changes in aerodynamic forces when passing through the wake of towers of bridges under crosswind. This may lead, in the worst case, to vehicle rollover or undesired lane changes, thus representing a critical concern for running safety. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to simulate and investigate the aerodynamic forces acting on a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) during the overtaking maneuver of a bridge tower when the vehicle is passing through the wake of the pylon generated by lateral wind. Dynamic mesh techniques are adopted to simulate the relative velocity between the vehicle and the infrastructure. Such an approach can be used to design lateral shields to be installed on existing infrastructure, reducing the risk of a wind-induced accident involving overturning of the HGV. The validation of the moving mesh strategies is performed comparing numerical and wind tunnel test results in terms of aerodynamic forces and moments acting on a stationary vehicle for different exposure angles.
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Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the CINECA award under the ISCRA initiative for the availability of high-performance computing resources and support.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 23 • Issue 9 • September 2018
Copyright
© 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 18, 2017
Accepted: Mar 28, 2018
Published online: Jul 12, 2018
Published in print: Sep 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Dec 12, 2018
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