Steady wind force coefficients of inclined stay cables with water rivulet and their application to aerodynamics

Abstract

The quasi-steady approaches to simulate the wind induced vibrations of inclined cables, especially on the rain-wind induced vibration, have been tried by many researchers. However, the steady wind force coefficients used in those methods include only the effects of water rivulet, but not the axial flow effects. The problem is the direct application of the conventional techniques to the inclined cable aerodynamics. Therefore, in this study, the method to implement the axial flow effects in the quasi-steady theory is considered and its applicability to the inclined cable aerodynamics is investigated. Then, it becomes clear that the perforated splitter plate in the wake of non-yawed circular cylinder can include the effects of axial flow in the steady wind force coefficients for inclined cables to a certain extent. Using the lateral force coefficients measured in this study, the quasi-steady theory may explain the wind induced instabilities of the inclined cables only in the relatively high reduced wind velocity region. When the Scruton number is less than around 40, the high speed vortex-induced vibration occurs around the onset wind velocity region of the galloping, and then, the quasi-steady approach cannot be applied for estimating the response of wind-induced vibration of inclined cable.