Effects of Streamwise Sinusoidal Flow on the Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Box Girder

Abstract

This study systematically investigated the aerodynamic characteristics of a closed box girder in sinusoidal oscillating flow fields based on experimental and numerical approaches. The numerical method was validated through comparison with experimental results. The effects of the oscillating frequencies (KC = 0.25~12) and amplitudes (Um = 0.5~2.0 m/s) on the pressure distributions, total forces, and wake characteristics were investigated. The results show that the mean pressure coefficients and time-averaged streamline distributions are insensitive to the oscillating frequency and amplitude. However, the characteristics of the sinusoidal oscillating inflow significantly influence the fluctuating aerodynamic forces and the fluctuating drag forces increase linearly with the oscillating frequency. In particular, for the wake flow, the larger oscillating frequency and amplitude of the inflow led to more obvious wake vortex shedding.