Numerical simulations for aerodynamic derivatives and critical flutter velocity of bridge deck

Abstract

Flow field around 2D moving rigid cross-section was simulated by using moving grid technique and forced vibration procedure. The Projection-2 scheme was employed to decouple the governing N-S equations and finite volume method (FVM) was used to solve the obtained equations. The flutter derivatives were extracted from obtained aerodynamic forces with least square method. The computed aerodynamic derivatives of the Great Belt East Bridge were compared with results from section model tests in wind tunnel and good agreement was found. Also, small deviation is shown on critical flutter velocity of Great Belt East Bridge based on flutter derivatives obtained from the present study and from wind tunnel tests. The validity of present approaches and its applicability to engineering are proved.