WIND EFFECT ON

STRUCTURES USING CFD

Under the Guidance of

Dr. C. UMARANI

Professor
Presented by
Structural engineering department J.ASHOK
2016233027
M.E. Structural Engineering
INTRODUCTION
• The aero elastic phenomena of the structures can be studied by

using FSI.
• FSI involves the coupling of fluid dynamics and structural

mechanics disciplines.
• By means of Fluent we can only obtain the aero dynamic

coefficient such as drag ,lift and moment.

INFERENCE FROM LITERATURE
• FSI is used for the simulation of wind effect on bridges in order

to study the aero elastic phenomena.

• Based upon the critical flutter velocity the bridge deck section

is optimized.
• Aero dynamic coefficients for different deck section and

various angle of attack are plotted.

NEED FOR STUDY
• Limited studies were reported on numerical investigation of

wind forces on structures using CFD.

• Investigation of various aero elastic phenomena leads to the

greater improvement in its structural design.

OBJECTIVE
The main objective is to find the critical flutter velocity by means
of moving the grid around the bridge deck in ANSYS Fluent
15.0.
SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
• Structure chosen for doing FSI is Great Belt East Bridge.

• Numerical simulation is done in ANSYS workbench 15.0.

• Both geometry and meshing can be done by using ANSYS

workbench 15.0.
METHODOLOGY
Creation of Geometry and
domain

Splitting the Domain to get

optimum mesh

Dynamic meshing

Getting the Time histories

of aerodynamic
coefficients

Results and Discussion

Geometry used for study

Cross section of bride deck

Width = 31m
Depth = 4.4m
• Domain is splitted into many faces to move the mesh around the deck.
Meshing
• Each zone is meshed by using the face sizing method.

• Each size of the face element is 1m around the bridge deck.

• Also the faces of each grid portion is defined before entering

the setup.
 Mesh used for study

No. of Nodes = 18758

No. of elements = 18538
Dynamic Meshing
• In ANSYS FLUENT the dynamic mesh capability is used

to simulate problems with boundary motion.

• Within ANSYS FLUENT there are three dynamic mesh

schemes, namely, smoothing, layering and remeshing.

Procedure for getting flutter velocity
• Whole rigid grid is rotated about the shear centre of bridge

deck.

• The parameters RI, Rm, whp and time step are given as input

parameters by using the UDF.

• Response is plotted against time.

• Flutter velocity is calculated from plots.

  RI (From rotational motion)

  Rm (From Translational motion)

  𝜔h
𝑤h𝑝=
𝜔𝛼

Natural vertical frequency 0.099 hz

Natural torsional frequency 0.272 hz
Mass per unit length 23687 kg/m
Mass moment of inertia 2.5 x 106 kgm2/m
REFERENCE
• Ahmed Abdel-Aziz, Walid A.Attia (2015). ‘Aero-elastic
Investigation of Different Deck Sections for Suspension Bridges by
Numerical Analysis’, International Journal of Engineering and
Innovative Technology (IJEIT) ISSN: 2277-3754, Vol. 24, No. 1,
pp. 34-43.
• Guido Morgenthal, F. A. Mcrobie (2014). ‘A comparative study of

numerical methods for fluid structure interaction analysis in long

span bridge design’, Wind and Structures An International Journal,
Vol. 3, No. 7, pp. 12-22.
• Hao Zhan, Tao Fang (2012). ‘Flutter stability studies of Great

Belt East Bridge and Tacoma Narrows Bridge by CFD

numerical simulation’ The Seventh International Colloquium on
Bluff Body Aerodynamics and Applications Vol no.2, pp 2-6.
• M. Keerthana, K.P. Jaya, S. Selvi Rajan, Hephzibah Thampi,

and R. Ravi Sankar (2011). ‘Numerical studies on evaluation

of aerodynamic force coefficients of cable stayed bridge deck’,
Journal of wind and Engineering, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 19-29.
• Allan Larsen (1997), ‘Aeroelastic analysis of bridge girder

sections based on discrete vortex simulations’, Journal of Wind

Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 67, pp. 253-265.
• Shinichi kuroda (1997), ‘Numerical simulation of flow around a

box girder of a long span suspension bridge’, Journal of Wind

Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 67, pp. 239-252.