Computational wind simulations for cable-supported bridges

The present paper describes computational wind simulations for large cable-supported bridges. The wind simulations are carried out by the program FSI-Bridge consisting of a CFD code based on large eddy simulation (LES), a finite-element model code (FEM) used to calculate structural deflections and a coupler tying the two codes together. For the closed box girder cross-sections considered, FSI-Bridge calculates non-dimensional cross-sectional shape factors for static and motion-induced wind load in reasonable good agreement with wind tunnel test results. The numerical simulations of bridge deck vibrations close to flutter are in good agreement with the experimental results and confirm the numerical FSI-representation of motioninduced wind loads on bridge decks.