Wind-Induced Buffeting Vibration of Long-Span Bridge Considering Geometric and Aerodynamic Nonlinearity Based on Reduced-Order Modeling

Abstract

Aeroelastic instability and buffeting are two wind-induced phenomena for long-span bridges. In the traditional method, aeroelastic instability and buffeting are analyzed separately. If geometric and aerodynamic nonlinearity are required, aeroelastic instability is normally calculated based on finite-element methods, and buffeting is carried out based on linearization of structural and aerodynamic nonlinearity. Then, the standard frequency-domain methods are utilized on the eigenvalue decomposition. However, for ultralong-span bridges, aerostatic deformation, aeroelasticity, and buffeting are strongly coupled. During buffeting, the bridge deck pitching will change both structural stiffness and aerodynamic loads; therefore, the nonlinearity should be included in the long-span bridge buffeting analysis. This paper establishes a reduced-order modeling procedure to simulate the wind-induced buffeting vibration for long-span bridges including the nonlinear aeroelasticity and buffeting force. First, the mode-based vibration formulas are derived to consider both structural and aerodynamic nonlinearity through polynomial expansion. Next, the numerically simulated turbulence is imported into the vibration governing equation, and the structural response can be calculated using the time-domain integration method.