Framework of wind-vehicle-bridge interaction analysis and its applications

Under strong winds, bridges may exhibit large dynamic responses. Wind may also endanger the safety of moving vehicles on the roadways as well as on bridges. For regular aerodynamic study of long-span bridges, traffic loads are not typically considered, assuming that bridges will be closed to traffic at high wind speeds. Therefore, bridges are usually tested in wind tunnels or analyzed numerically without considering moving vehicles on them. However, there are numerous possible scenarios under which vehicles may still be on the bridge when higher wind speeds occur. These scenarios include unexpected increase in hurricane forward speed or intensity, evacuation traffic gridlock, accidents/stalled vehicles or rainfall flooding blocking the road ahead, etc. Wind, together with vehicles, will also cause serviceability and bridge fatigue damage issues. The present study will present the framework of wind-vehicle-bridge interaction analysis and its applications, developed in the last decade by the authors' group, focused on the vehicle and bridge safety issues. It consists of the following five parts: (1) A three dimensional finite element analysis framework considering the interaction of wind, bridge and vehicles; (2) experimental facilities development and studies for both static and aerodynamic tests of bridge section models and vehicles; (3) Computation fluid dynamic (CFD) prediction of loading on vehicles; (4) performance evaluation of vehicle safety and bridge fatigue; and (5) bridge vibration mitigations. Case study will also be presented and future research needs are discussed.