Effects of gap configuration on vortex-induced vibration of twin-box girder and countermeasure study

Abstract

To investigate the effect of the gap configuration on the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a twin-box girder, spring-supported sectional model wind tunnel tests of twin-box girders with different gap configurations are conducted. The gap ratio (B/D, where B is the gap width of the twin-box girder and D is the central height of the girder) is fixed at 2.74. All the tested models undergo evident vertical VIV. The wind tunnel test results show that the gap configuration significantly affects the VIV response. Two-dimensional (2D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed to study the VIV mechanism of a twin-box girder. The flow characteristics of the twin-box girder are studied, and the results of the fluid-structure interaction are obtained using CFD simulations. To explore the mitigation devices for VIV, seven schemes are employed for the same scaled sectional model. The results indicate that the proposed flow splitter plate device efficiently suppresses the VIV of the twin-box girder.