Aeroelastic Stability Analysis during flutter of a Suspension Bridge for

light weight vehicle and pedestrians by using CFD

Dipankar Bhawal **
ABSTRACT

Long suspension bridges with decks having low flexural and torsional rigidity are often subject to instability under
aeroelastic and aerodynamic forces which can be critical and lead to severe damage. Bridges which are meant for
carrying loads from pedestrians or light weight vehicles are equally vulnerable to failure due to instability in flutter
during interaction between wind and structure. Often wind analysis requires experimentation using models in
simulated environment and wind tunnels. These studies and their results can be verified by carrying out by CFD
analysis (computational fluid dynamics).CFD analysis can also be used as a substitute for laboratory tests during
various stages of design of a bridge or any structure when expensive tests are avoided.

Keywords : Flutter, Aeroelastic Stability, CFD, Flutter derivatives

1. INTRODUCTION
Long span bridges with flexible decks
are prone to instability in flutter-mode caused by
self-excited aerodynamic forces during wind-
deck interaction. To determine the critical
condition in flutter or other phenomena under
wind loading , laboratory testing of models of
bridges in wind tunnels or similar artificial
environments reflecting the characteristics of a
site is required. These tests can be expensive and
also data obtained from laboratory may be
inadequate to provide feasible results during
certain critical conditions. Analysis by CFD
(computational fluid dynamics) can either be
used as an alternative to these tests or as a
verification tool in a test. This method could be
adopted at any stage of design, especially during
preliminary stage of planning.
The basic theory for analysis of
aeroelastic stability of a bridge-deck in flutter is
based on the assumptions under 2D or planar
wind flow condition across a deck section after
retaining the important degrees-of-freedom
(DOF) only [1] . This postulation can be
extended to apply on the entire deck or structure
with some modifications. Flutter analysis is
based on the method of deriving aerodynamic
derivatives and admittance functions by
performing tests on models, subjected to known
oscillatory motion in desired DOFs (primarily in
vertical and rotational motion about longitudinal
axis) while restraining others. With powerful
multiple processor based computers, analytical
methods involving CFD can be used to
determine these aerodynamic derivatives, which
is required to solve a set of equations of
motions. Recent studies on already constructed
bridges have proved that outcome by a CFD
analysis is fairly comparable with the laboratory
test results.
For this study a single lane suspension
bridge on the river Chhimtuipui in Mizoram, is
chosen which can carry pedestrians throughout
and a single light weight vehicle at a time. This
bridge was never analysed for aeroelastic
stability before.
Flutter derivatives of the deck is derived
by CFD method [2]. These derivatives will be
used in numerical models to calculate the critical
frequency and speed of the wind flow, which
can create instability.
As a second approach, CFD method will
be used directly to determine the critical wind -
speed at the onset of instability of the deck in
flutter.

**Chief Consultant(Propr.) -Newline Consulting Engineers , Kolkata; BE(Civil) , M-Tech(Structures) 1

2. DESCRIPTION OF MODELS
A 3D space frame model Fig. 1, is
regenerated after collecting relevant data of the
constructed bridge. The bridge has a main span
with a suspended stiffening truss type deck of
length L =170.0 m and side spans are composed
of simply supported independent trusses of 15.0
m each, which are not included in the analytical
model. Also there are intermediate flexible steel-
piers at 10m from bearing points (left and right)
in the river, which are neglected as these are not
anchored to the deck and dead load is already
shared by suspension cables. It is observed that
transfer of vertical load to intermediate steel
piers occurs only under full application of live
load. The structure is symmetrical about vertical
planes at centre of span. Wind ties of cables
which are attached to bottom of deck are also
considered in the model. This model is used to
determine the mode shapes from modal analysis
(based on 'Ritz vector') of the structure. A 2D-
model representing the deck in flutter motion
and the model used for CFD are provided in
Fig. 3. Vertical panels of the truss have
Fig. 1 : Structural Model of the Suspension Bridge
Fig. 2 : Rigid body in flutter motion.
**Chief Consultant(Propr.) -Newline Consulting Engineers , Kolkata; BE(Civil) , M-Tech(Structures)
perforations with varying orientation of
members. The area of perforation or porosity is
more than 85%. The influence of these truss
members is included by increasing the depth of
continuous bottom chord and top chord of the
model to match the actual area. Due to
obstruction provided by the porous vertical
panels there will be variation in pressure on top
of the deck. However the effect of porosity is
not considered in the analysis for this study
assuming it has insignificant impact on critical
output. Panels could be assumed to be a porous
media and represented by numerical models in
the CFD analysis. Cross girders or bracings in
the plane of deck will have insignificant effect
on the flow as their projected surface areas are
obstructed by bottom chords at edge and the
deck on top. The boundary conditions of the
fluid domain is simplified and nearly represents
a testing environment in a wind tunnel. The
extent of domain is chosen in such a fashion to
reduce computational time but sufficient enough
to develop full flow condition.
Fig. 3 : Rigid body in fluid domain, CFD analysis.
2