Aerodynamic characteristics of a high-speed train crossing the wake of a bridge tower from moving model experiments

In a strong crosswind,the wake of a bridge tower will lead to an abrupt change of the aerodynamic forces acting on a vehicle passing through it,which may result in problems related to the transportation safety.This study investigates the transient aerodynamic characteristics of a high-speed train moving in a truss girder bridge and passing by a bridge tower in a wind tunnel.The scaled ratio of the train,bridge,and tower are 1:30.Effects of various parameters such as the incoming wind speed,train speed,and yaw angle on the aerodynamic performance of the train were considered.Then the sudden change mechanism of aerodynamic loads on the train when it crosses over the tower was further discussed.The results show that the bridge tower has an apparent shielding effect on the train passing through it,with the influencing width being larger than the width of the tower.The train speed is the main factor affecting the influencing width of aerodynamic coefficients,and the mutation amplitude is mainly related to the yaw angle obtained by changing the incoming wind speed or train speed.The vehicle movement introduces an asymmetry of loading on the train in the process of approaching and leaving the wake of the bridge tower,which should not be neglected.

Thermal Effect of the Cable-Stayed Bridge Tower

This paper studies the thermal effect of the cable-stayed bridge tower based on full time accurate measurement and finite element analysis on Xiantao Hanjiang River Highway Bridge. The measured results and the displacement variation of top tower show that the tower rotates periodically when it is exposed in sunshine. But the tower column will not decline when there is no sunshine. In spite of in winter or in summer, the period when the tower column changed smallest is from 0∶00 am to 5∶00 am. The time period when the tower column has maximum deviation lags behind the time when the tower column has maximum temperature difference, and this phenomenon is obvious in winter. The conclusions also have directive value in predicting the tower deformations and their directions in construction control of cable-stayed bridge, and in verifying the finite element program.

Shake table experimental study of cable-stayed bridges with two different design strategies of H-shaped towers

As one of the main load-carrying components of cable-stayed bridges,bridge towers are typically required to remain elastic even when subjected to severe ground motions with a 2%-3%probability of exceedance in 50 years.To fulfill this special requirement imposed by current seismic design codes,reinforcement ratios in the bridge towers have to be kept significantly higher than if limited ductility behavior of the tower is allowed.In addition,since the foundation capacity is closely related to the moment and shear capacities of the bridge tower,a large increase in bridge construction cost for elastically designed cable-stayed bridge is inevitable.To further investigate the possibility of limited ductility bridge tower design strategies,a new 1/20-scale cable-stayed bridge model with H-shaped bridge towers designed according to strong strut-weak tower column design was tested.The shake table experimental results are compared with a previous strong tower column-weak strut designed full bridge model.A comparison of the results show that ductility design with plastic hinges located on tower columns,i.e.,strong strut-weak tower column design,is another effective seismic design strategy that results in only small residual displacement at the top of the tower column,even under very severe earthquake excitations.