Modeling and simulation of bridge-section buffeting response in turbulent flow

Buffeting analysis plays an important role in the wind-resistant design of long-span bridges. While computational methods have been widely used in the study of self-excited forces on bridge sections, there is very little work on applying advanced simulation to buffeting analysis. In an effort to address this shortcoming, we developed a framework for the buffeting simulation of bridge sections subjected to turbulent flows. We carry out simulations of a rectangular bridge section with aspect ratio 10 and compute its aerodynamic admittance functions. The simulations show good agreement with airfoil theory and experimental observations. It was found that inflow turbulence plays an important role in obtaining accurate wind loads on the bridge sections. The proposed methodology is envisioned to have practical impact in wind engineering of structures in the future.