Nonlinear Aerodynamic Characteristics and Post-flutter Performance Prediction of a Streamline Box Girder
Due to the ignoring of structural and aerodynamic nonlinearities,traditional linear flutter theory of long-span bridges can only be applied to the critical flutter state prediction,not suitable for post-flutter state analysis.Besides,the superposition principle of aerodynamic forces is usually directly assumed to be true when analyzing bending-torsional coupled flutter.Therefore,this paper firstly verified superposition principle of aerodynamic forces and its applicable interval by forced vibration wind tunnel test,and then realized nonlinear flutter analysis by introducing the amplitude dependent structural damping ratio and flutter derivatives into the complex mode eigenvalue algorithm.The predicted post-flutter amplitude was verified by comparing with wind tunnel test results.The results show that the superposition principle of bending-torsional coupled aerodynamic forces is approximately satisfied for streamline box girder in the test range(vertical amplitude Ah/B≤1.0,torsional amplitude Aα≤12°).The predicted post flutter amplitudes show good agreement with experimental results when the amplitude dependence of both structural damping ratio and flutter derivatives are concerned,which also indicating that the amplitude dependence of structural damping and aerodynamic forces is the major nonlinearity of section model wind tunnel test system.