Flutter performance of box girders with different wind fairings at large angles of attack

Abstract

The streamlined box is a common type of girders for long-span suspension bridges. Spanning deep canyons, long-span bridges are frequently attacked by strong winds with large angles of attack. In this situation, the flow field around the streamlined box changes significantly, leading to reduction of the flutter performance. The wind fairings have different effects on the flutter performance. Therefore, this study examines the flutter performance of box girders with different wind fairings at large angles of attack. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were carried out to extract the flutter derivatives, and the critical flutter state of a long-span bridge was determined. Further comparisons of the wind fairings were investigated by a rapid method which is related to the input energy by the aerodynamic force. The results show that a reasonable type of wind fairings could improve the flutter performance of long-span bridges at large angles of attack. For the torsional flutter instability, the wind fairings weaken the adverse effect of the vortex attaching to the girder, and a sharper one could achieve a better result. According to the input energies on the girder with different wind fairings, the symmetrical wind fairings are more beneficial to the flutter performance.