Numerical Simulation of Wind and Wave Fields for Coastal Slender Bridges

Abstract

AbstractFatigue damage of coastal slender bridges resulting from strong winds and high waves can accumulate during extreme hurricane or winter storm events and lead to possible catastrophic failures in a bridge’s lifecycle. With the transient, nonstationary features of extreme winds and strong waves, the interactions of winds, waves, and coastal slender bridges can be complicated because of the nonlinear nature of the structural system and fluid–structure interactions. For accurate coupled dynamic analysis, simulation of wind and wave fields around the structures under extreme weather conditions is necessary. This paper presents a numerical scheme to simulate the nonstationary wind and wave fields around a coastal slender bridge during hurricane events that also can be used in bridge–wind–wave (BWW) system dynamic analyses. In the present study, the wind was modeled as a time-varying mean component plus nonstationary fluctuation components, and the associated wave was modeled as a nonstationary random pro...