Wind tunnel study of wind structure at a mountainous bridge location

Lei Yan, Zhen S. Guo, Le D. Zhu and Richard G.J. Flay

Abstract

Wind tunnel tests of a 1/2200-scale mountainous terrain model have been carried out to investigate local wind characteristics at a bridge location in southeast Tibet, China. Flows at five key locations on the bridge at deck level were measured for 26 directions. It was observed that wind characteristics (including mean wind velocity and overall turbulence intensity) vary significantly depending on the approaching wind direction and measurement position. The wind inclination angle measured in the study fluctuated between -18 and +16 and the ratio of mean wind velocity to reference wind velocity was small when the wind inclination angles were large, especially for positive wind inclination angles. The design standard wind speed and the minimum critical wind speed for flutter rely on the wind inclination angle and should be determined from the results of such tests. The variation of wind speed with wind inclination angles should be of the asymmetry step type. The turbulence characteristics of the wind were found to be similar to real atmospheric flows.

Key Words

mountainous terrain; approaching wind direction; wind inclination angle; turbulence characterization

Address

Lei Yan: Department of Bridge Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China; State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China; Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand Zhen S. Guo: Department of Bridge Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China; Key Laboratory of Wind Resistance Technology of Bridges of Ministry of Transport, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China Le D. Zhu: Department of Bridge Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China; State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China; Key Laboratory of Wind Resistance Technology of Bridges of Ministry of Transport, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China Richard G.J. Flay: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand

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