Analysis of Reynolds number effects on bridge deck sections by the PSE method

Abstract

ABSTRACT Reynolds numbers play an important role in fluid dynamics, because flow separations and reattachments are often Reynolds-number dependent, even if the bodies have sharp edges. To satisfy Reynolds scaling in experiments, the model scale can be very large. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) provides an interesting alternative to wind tunnel tests, especially when Reynolds effects have to be assessed for a design stage. In this paper, the particle strength exchange (PSE) of vortex methods is introduced for assessing Reynolds number effects on bridge deck cross-sections. For this purpose, this study analyses how the aerodynamic forces of two different bridges sections are influenced by these effects. The computation results with PSE are compared with wind tunnel tests. The relation between Strouhal numbers and Reynolds numbers are also analyzed and compared with experimental results. All the results show that the particle strength exchange method can be efficiently used to calculate Reynolds effects on 2-dimensional bridge deck sections.