Abstract
The aerodynamic characteristics of road vehicles in windy environments are the prerequisites for the evaluation and prediction of the driving safety and stability. To investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of the overtaking vehicles on the bridge deck under the effects of crosswinds, models of a cable‐stayed bridge with a typical flat box girder and road vehicles involving articulated lorry and commercial van with a scale of 1 : 40 were tested in the wind tunnel laboratory. A series of tests figured out the variation of the aerodynamic forces of road vehicles during the overtaking process after considering the aerodynamic interference between lorry and lorry, van and van, and lorry and van. Additionally, the influence of the lateral overtaking distance between the overtaking vehicles was regarded as well. The result reveals the upstream vehicle has a significant influence on the aerodynamic coefficients of the downstream vehicle, which have experienced dramatic fluctuations during the overtaking process, and the various shapes of the aerodynamic coefficients are highly dependent on it.
Highlights
Force balanceVehicle is mounted on the bridge deck through a specially designed I shaped connector playing as a flange which is made of steel bar providing sufficient stiffness to sustain the weight of the vehicle body and the aerodynamic force
E moving model experiment is an ideal method to explore the overtaking manoeuvres under crosswind as it could reflect the realistic motion of the vehicle, but there are many difficulties in the practice
The affiliated structures of the bridge deck have a significant influence on the aerodynamic characteristics of road vehicles, so it is of great importance to take the safety fence and the isolating railing into consideration in the model making
Summary
Vehicle is mounted on the bridge deck through a specially designed I shaped connector playing as a flange which is made of steel bar providing sufficient stiffness to sustain the weight of the vehicle body and the aerodynamic force. In order to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of the adjacent vehicles during the whole course of the vehicle overtaking, eight cases are examined in the current work. E effects of the two main factors, including the combinations of vehicle type and the relative lateral lane position, on the aerodynamic characteristics of the overtaking vehicles are investigated in the presented experiments. E force balance is installed in the moving vehicle and a total of 15 test locations are considered along the traffic lane. Erefore, the transient aerodynamic forces of the moving vehicle are located at each test location are available, while it is unable to obtain the aerodynamic force of the fixed vehicle at the same time. By exchanging the relative position of the moving and fixed vehicles, it is possible to obtain the aerodynamic forces as the overtaking vehicle
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