Experimental and numerical studies on VIV characteristics of π-shaped composite deck of a cable-stayed bridge with 650 m main span

A π-shaped composite deck in the form of an open section is a type of blunt body that is highly susceptible to wind loads. To investigate its vortex-induced vibration (VIV) performance, a large-scale (1/20) section model of a cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 650 m was tested in a wind tunnel. The vibration suppression mechanism of the countermeasures was analyzed using computational fluid dynamic. Experimental results demonstrate that the vertical and torsional VIVs of the original section can be suppressed by combining guide plates with a tilt angle of 35° and bottom central stabilizing plates as aerodynamic countermeasures. Numerical results indicate that the large-scale vortex under the deck separates into smaller vortices, resulting in the disappearance of the von Karman vortex street in the wake zone because the countermeasures effectively suppress the VIVs. Furthermore, a full-bridge aeroelastic model with a scale of 1/100 was constructed and tested to evaluate the wind resistance performance and validate the effectiveness of the proposed countermeasures.