Airfoil and Bridge Deck Flutter Derivatives

Abstract

The writers compare the flutter phenomena of the suspension bridge and the airfoil and employ a free-oscillation experimental method to measure model bridge flutter coefficients analogous to airfoil flutter coefficients. They employ the airfoil as a check on the experimental method, both as a theoretical backdrop and to test out the nature of aerodynamic oscillatory forces under exponentially modified motion. A short catalogue of bridge deck flutter coefficients is then experimentally obtained and presented covering a range of bridge deck forms. Detailed results are described to account for a number of phenomena observed in the wind tunnel and in the field.