Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) depends on aerodynamic shapes of bridge girders, which should be treated carefully in the design of long-span bridges. This paper studies the VIV performance of a suspension bridge with the truss girder which contains two separated decks. Although truss girders generally show better VIV performance than box girders, significant vibrations of this type of girders occurred in the wind tunnel tests based on a large-scale sectional model. Several lock-in regions with the same vibration frequency were observed, corresponding to different shedding vortices. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were carried out, and monitoring points were set behind different components to study the characteristics of the shed vortices. As the truss girder consists of many members, the results show that various vortices with different dominant frequencies are formed in the wake flow. The vertical VIV of the bridge is probably driven by the vortices behind or above the upper deck, which is related to the guardrails. The torsional VIV of the bridge is probably driven by the vortices behind or below the lower deck, which is related to the service road at lower wind speeds while may be related the vertical stabilizers at higher wind speeds.
In mountainous areas, more challenges are expected for the construction of long-span bridges. The flutter instability during erection is an outstanding issue due to flexible structural characteristics and strong winds with large angles of attack. Taking the suspension bridge as an example, the flutter stability of the bridge with different suspending sequences was investigated. First, the dynamic characteristics of the bridge during erection were computed by the finite element software ANSYS, along with the effects on flutter stability discussed. Then, different aerodynamic shapes of the bridge girder during erection were considered. The aerodynamic coefficients and the critical flutter state were determined by wind tunnel tests. Based on the above analysis, some structural measures are proposed for improving the flutter stability of the bridge during erection. The results show that the flutter stability of the bridge during erection is related to the suspending sequence and the aerodynamic shape of the girder. Owing to the structural dynamic characteristics, the bridge has better flutter stability when the girder segments are suspended symmetrically from the two towers to the mid-span. Considering the construction requirement that the bridge deck should be laid without intervals, this structural superiority is seriously weakened by the unfavorable aerodynamic shape of the girder. In order to improve the flutter stability of the bridge during erection, an effective way is to adopt some temporary structural strengthening measures.
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