Techno Press
Techno Press

Wind and Structures
  Volume 26, Number 4, April 2018 , pages 253-266
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/was.2018.26.4.253
 


Aerodynamics and rain rivulet suppression of bridge cables with concave fillets
Celeste Burlina, Christos T. Georgakis, Soren V. Larsen and Philipp Egger

 
Abstract
    n this paper, the aerodynamic performance of two new cable surfaces with concave fillets (strakes) is examined and compared to plain, dimpled and helically filleted surfaces. To this end, an extensive wind-tunnel campaign was undertaken. Different samples with different concave fillet heights for both new surfaces were tested and compared to traditional surfaces in terms of aerodynamic forces (i.e. drag and lift reduction) and rain-rivulet suppression. Furthermore, flow visualization tests were performed to investigate the flow separation mechanism induced by the presence of the concave fillet and its relation to the aerodynamic forces. Both new cable surfaces outperformed the traditional surfaces in terms of rain-rivulet suppression thanks to the ability of the concave shape of the fillet to act as a ramp for the incoming rain-rivulet. Furthermore, both new surfaces with the lowest tested fillet height were found to have drag coefficients in the supercritical Reynolds range that compare favorably to existing cable surfaces, with an early suppression of vortex shedding.
 
Key Words
    cable aerodynamics; concave fillets; rain rivulet suppression; flow visualization; static forces
 
Address
Celeste Burlina: Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
Christos T. Georgakis: Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
Soren V. Larsen: FORCE Technology, Copenhagen, Denmark
Philipp Egger: VSL International Ltd., Bern, Switzerland
 

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