3D Flutter Analysis of Cable Supported Bridges Including Aeroelastic Effects of Cables

Abstract

For 3D flutter analysis of cable supported bridges, the aeroelastic effects of cables include the aerodynamic forces acting on cables and local lateral vibrations of cables, as well as the interaction of both. In order to investigate the aeroelastic effects of cables, a 3D flutter analysis method by a commercial structural analysis software package is developed and verified by the simply supported thin plate example and two actual bridges. The developed method can treat the cable as a multi-link model, instead of a single link model, and therefore can show the lateral degrees of freedom along the cable. Also it can simulate the structural damping perfectly and solve the flutter modes successfully. The flutter behaviors including aeroelastic effects of cables of two example bridges, Yangpu Bridge and Jiangyin Bridge in China, are investigated based on the developed method. The calculated results show that for the Yangpu cable-stayed bridge with a 602 m main span, the flutter critical wind velocity can be increased by 20.2% with the consideration of aeroelastic effects of cables. For the Jiangyin suspension bridge of 1385 m main span, however, the impact of the aeroelastic effects of cables on the flutter critical wind velocity is neglectable. The mechanisms of the aeroelastic effects of cables are discussed in this paper.