Study on the role of rivulet in rain–wind-induced cable vibration through wind tunnel testing

Rain–wind-induced vibration (RWIV) of stay cables has become a concern in bridge engineering over the past decades. The excitation mechanism of RWIV remains unclear. Many researchers believe that the upper rivulet is crucial to RWIV. However, experimental study on rivulet is challenging and limited. The current study designs and tests a cable model of 160 mm in diameter in an open jet wind tunnel. The upper rivulet movement and cable vibration are simultaneously measured. The importance of the upper rivulet in RWIV is directly demonstrated by alternately controlling the upper and lower rivulets. The characteristics of the upper rivulet movement and the effects of this movement on RWIV are investigated in detail. The experiment shows that the rivulet–cable system is coupled, which causes the cable and upper rivulet to vibrate at different amplitudes under the same wind speed. The upper rivulet harmonic movement changes the wind loading on the cable, causing the harmonic vibration of the cable, which in turn exerts a harmonic inertia force on the rivulet. A large vibration of the coupled system then develops.     

变化外形的水线对斜拉索风雨激振的激发作用

讨论变化外形的水线对斜拉桥拉索风雨激振的激发作用.首先,建立考虑水线外形变化的斜拉桥拉索风雨激振计算模型,并将由采用变化水线外形的模型得到的拉索最大振幅与固定水线外形模型的计算结果及试验实测结果对比,对模型进行验证;在模型得到验证的基础上,进一步讨论拉索和变化水线外形的水线振动稳定性及水线对拉索风雨激振贡献.计算结果表明,在四个典型工况下,考虑水线外形变化的模型得到的拉索计算振幅固定水线外形模型能更好地与试验实测振幅吻合;理论分析发现拉索速度和水线速度的耦合作用对水线运动的激发起到主导作用;水线的加速发散发生在拉索大幅激振之前.没有水线加速发散的时程中,拉索均不发生大幅激振.     

Aerodynamic characteristics of an inclined and yawed circular cylinder with artificial rivulet

Stay cables of cable-stayed bridges often experience vibrations with large amplitudes induced by wind or jointly by both wind and rain. To understand the aerodynamic characteristics of the stay cables and excitation mechanics of rain–wind-induced vibration (RWIV), an inclined and yawed circular cylinder with and without an artificial upper rivulet is studied through a series of wind tunnel tests. The impacts of upper rivulet and axial flow on the aerodynamics of the cylinder are investigated. It is found that for an inclined and yawed cylinder without rivulet there exists a non-zero lift force at large wind angle. Furthermore, the wind pressures and aerodynamic forces acting on both the cylinder and the upper rivulet are obtained, which can be used to develop more rational theoretical models for RWIV of stay cables. Results show that the upper rivulet can both enhance and depress Karman vortex shedding depending on the position of the rivulet. As a result, dramatic variations of the aerodynamic forces acting on the cylinder and the rivulet will occur, which may eventually result in RWIV. Also axial flow may have a noticeable influence on the aerodynamic characteristics of the inclined and yawed cylinder. And the presence of the rivulet can enhance such influence from the axial flow.     

Three-phase coupled modelling research on rain–wind induced vibration of stay cable based on lubrication theory

Cables of cable-stayed bridges may vibrate with large amplitude under wind and rain, which is known as rain–wind induced vibration (RWIV). According to the pervious researches, the formations and oscillations of rivulets on stay cable surface play important roles in RWIV. In this paper, four different 2D models are presented based on lubrication theory, and the best way of simulating RWIV through lubrication theory is confirmed by the comparisons of rivulet motions and cable vibration responses between these four models and pervious researches. On this basis, the relations among rivulet motions, cable aerodynamic forces and vibration responses are investigated to reveal the mechanism of RWIV. Numerical simulation results show that when RWIV occurs, the periodic oscillations of rivulets around cable lead to the periodic fluctuations of cable lift and drag, whose frequencies are almost equal and close to cable natural frequency. Under the periodically fluctuant lift and drag, cable vibrates with large amplitude in across-wind and along-wind directions, which may further enhance the circumferential oscillations of rivulets conversely. These confirm the conclusion that the resonance between rivulets and cable oscillation may be one of the main reasons for RWIV.     

Numerical simulation and analysis of the effects of water-film morphological changes on the aerodynamic lift of stay cables

The cables in cable-stayed bridges can vibrate at large amplitudes during rain and windy conditions, a phenomenon known as rain-wind induced vibration (RWIV). Previous studies have demonstrated that the formation and oscillation of rivulets on stay cable surfaces play an important role in RWIV.This paper presents a new numerical method for simulating the evolution of rivulets on stay cable surfaces based on a combination of the gas–liquid two-phase theory and the volume of fluid method (VOF method), which allows for the straightforward determination of the cables’ aerodynamic lift when RWIV occurs. To verify the accuracy of this method and analyze the effects of wind velocity on the water film and the aerodynamic lift around the cable, three cases with different loadings were investigated using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software CFX. To verify the method’s accuracy, the aerodynamic lifts calculated from these cases were applied to the cable to obtain its vibrational response. In accordance with the experimental results, the numerical results demonstrated that an upper rivulet with a periodic oscillation was formed at a specific wind speed, causing the aerodynamic lift to change with a similar periodicity. The aerodynamic lift’s frequency was approximately the cable’s natural frequency, and induced large vibrations in the cable. No obvious upper rivulets were formed at sufficiently low wind speeds. The frequency of an aerodynamic lift that was significantly larger than the cable’s natural frequency induced small vibrations in the cable. When the wind speed was sufficiently high, despite the eventual formation of a continuous upper rivulet, the frequencies of the upper rivulet’s oscillation and the aerodynamic lift remained distinct from the natural frequency, and the cable continued to exhibit small-amplitude vibrations. These observations confirmed the conclusion that periodic variations in the water film morphology could lead to periodic changes in the aerodynamic lift that would induce RWIV.     

Rain-wind-induced vibrations of a simple oscillator

In this paper a relatively simple mechanical oscillator which may be used to study rain-wind-induced vibrations of stay cables of cable-stayed bridges is considered. In recent publications, mention is made of vibrations of (inclined) stay cables which are excited by a wind field containing rain drops. The rain drops that hit the cables generate a rivulet on the surface of the cable. The presence of flowing water on the cable changes the cross section of the cable experienced by the wind field. A symmetric flow pattern around the cable with circular cross section may become asymmetric due to the presence of the rivulet and may consequently induce a lift force as a mechanism for vibration. During the motion of the cable the position of rivulet(s) may vary as the motion of the cable induces an additional varying aerodynamic force perpendicular to the direction of the wind field. It seems not too easy to model this phenomenon, several author state that there is no model available yet.The idea to model this problem is to consider a horizontal cylinder supported by springs in such a way that only one degree of freedom, i.e. vertical vibration is possible. We consider a ridge on the surface of the cylinder parallel to the axis of the cylinder. Additionally, let the cylinder with ridge be able to oscillate, with small amplitude, around the axis such that the oscillations are excited by an external force.It may be clear that the small amplitude oscillations of the cylinder and hence of the ridge induce a varying lift and drag force. In this approach it is assumed that the motion of the ridge models the dynamics of the rivulet(s) on the cable. By using a quasi-steady approach to model the aerodynamic forces, one arrives at a non-linear second-order equation displaying three different kinds of excitation mechanisms: self-excitation, parametric excitation and ordinary forcing. The first results of the analysis of the equation of motion show that even in a linear approximation for certain values of the parameters involved, stable periodic motions are possible. In the relevant cases where in linear approximation unstable periodic motions are found, results of an analysis of the non-linear equation are presented.     

Numerical investigation of the coupled interaction between an unsteady aerodynamic flow field and a water film coating on a circular cylinder

Rain–wind induced vibration is an aeroelastic phenomenon that occurs on the inclined cables of cable-stayed bridges and arises due to the interaction between the unsteady wind loading and the formation of water rivulets on the cable surface. A new numerical method has been developed at the University of Strathclyde to simulate the influence of the external flow field on the rivulet dynamics and vice versa. The approach is to couple a Discrete Vortex Method solver to determine the external flow field and unsteady aerodynamic loading, and a pseudo-spectral solver based on lubrication theory to model the evolution and growth of the water rivulets on the cable surface under external loading. Results of this coupled model are presented, to provide detailed information on the development of water rivulets and their interaction with the aerodynamic field. In particular, the effect of the initial water film thickness and the angle of attack in plane on the resulting rivulets are investigated. The results are consistent with previous full scale and experimental observations with rivulets forming on the upper surface of the cable only in configurations where rain–wind induced vibration has been observed. Additionally, the thickness of the lower rivulet is found to be self-limiting in all configurations. The results demonstrate that the model can be used to enhance the understanding of the underlying physical mechanisms of rain–wind-induced vibration.     

长单索结构的多参数流固耦合分析

介绍了长索结构在风场中的流固耦合振动,总结已有的流固耦合基本理论,着重介绍弱耦合问题的具体分析过程.以100m长索在不同拉索倾角和风向角的多参数流固耦合风振为例,应用ANSYS-CFX软件分别在层流模型和湍流模型风场中进行数值分析,得出与力学概念分析基本一致的结果.     

A numerical and experimental hybrid approach for the investigation of aerodynamic forces on stay cables suffering from rain-wind induced vibration

The aerodynamic forces on a stay cable under a rain-wind induced vibration (RWIV) are difficult to measure directly in a wind tunnel test. This paper presents a hybrid approach that combines an experiment with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for the investigation on aerodynamic forces of a stay cable under a RWIV. The stay cable and flow field were considered as two substructures of the system. The oscillation of the stay cable was first measured by using a wind tunnel test of a RWIV under an artificial rainfall condition. The oscillation of the cable was treated as a previously known moving boundary condition and applied to the flow field. Only the flow field with the known moving cable boundary was then numerically simulated by using a CFD method (such as Fluent 6.3). The transient aerodynamic forces of the stay cable with a predetermined cable oscillation were obtained from numerical calculations. The characteristics of the aerodynamic forces in the time domain and frequency domain were then analysed for various cases. To verify the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed hybrid approach, the transient aerodynamic forces were applied to a single-degree-of-freedom model (SDOF) of the stay cable to calculate the RWIV of the cable. A comparison was performed between the oscillation responses of the stay cable obtained from the calculated (SDOF model) and experimental results, and the results indicate that the hybrid approach accurately simulates the transient aerodynamic forces of the stay cable. The equivalent damping ratios induced by the aerodynamic forces were obtained for various wind speeds. Furthermore, a nonlinear model of the aerodynamic force is proposed based on the calculation results, and the coefficients in the model were identified by a nonlinear least-squares technique.     

Theoretical and experimental studies on the aerodynamic instability of a two-dimensional circular cylinder with a moving attachment

Rain–wind induced vibration of cables in cable-stayed bridges is a worldwide problem of great concern. The effect of the motion of water rivulets on the instability of stay cables has been recognized as one of the mechanisms of this complex phenomenon. In order to investigate how the motion of rivulets affects the unstable vibration of cables without considering the effects of axial flow and axial vortex, a real three-dimensional cable was modeled as a two-dimensional circular cylinder, around which an attachment representing the rivulet can move. This could also be regarded as a new kind of two-dimensional 2-dof dynamic system. This paper studies the aerodynamic instability of the system theoretically and experimentally. Equations governing the motions of the cylinder and the attachment are first established. The Lyapunov stability criterion is applied to the equations of motion to derive the criterion for the unstable balance angle of the attachment. Moreover, a new two-dimensional 2-dof cable model system with a movable attachment is designed and tested in a wind tunnel. Parametric studies are carried out to investigate the effects of major factors such as wind speed, frequency and damping of the dynamic system on the unstable balance angle of the rivulet attachment. Theoretical and experimental results match well. These results may be valuable in elucidating the mechanism of rain–wind induced vibration of stay cables.     

考虑非稳态风荷载斜拉索风雨激振响应分析

为研究自然风荷载对斜拉桥拉索风雨激振的影响,将数值模拟的非稳态风荷载作用到拉索振动微分方程中,对拉索振动响应进行了详细分析。首先,针对水线初始位置,使用最小二乘法拟合得到水线初始位置方程;接着,采用四阶Runge-Kutta法求解拉索振动响应。通过比较在非稳态风和稳态平均风作用下的拉索响应,发现在非稳态风荷载下拉索最大振幅的变化趋势并没有发生较大改变,皆是随着风速的增大先增大后减小;但拉索的整个振动过程发生了变化,伴随着节拍改变,其最大振幅也出现在不同振动周期内。此外,从风速-振幅曲线知,对频率为1 Hz,2 Hz和3 Hz的拉索,在一定风速范围内,考虑非稳态风荷载的拉索振幅反而更大,而且此时的风速范围也更大。     

Dynamic instability of inclined cables under combined wind flow and support motion

In this paper an inclined nearly taut stay, belonging to a cable-stayed bridge, is considered. It is subject to a prescribed motion at one end, caused by traveling vehicles, and embedded in a wind flow blowing simultaneously with rain. The cable is modeled as a non-planar, nonlinear, one-dimensional continuum, possessing torsional and flexural stiffness. The lower end of the cable is assumed to undergo a vertical sinusoidal motion of given amplitude and frequency. The wind flow is assumed uniform in space and constant in time, acting on the cable along which flows a rain rivulet. The imposed motion is responsible for both external and parametric excitations, while the wind flow produces aeroelastic instability. The relevant equations of motion are discretized via the Galerkin method, by taking one in-plane and one out-of-plane symmetric modes as trial functions. The two resulting second-order, non-homogeneous, time-periodic, ordinary differential equations are coupled and contain quadratic and cubic nonlinearities, both in the displacements and velocities. They are tackled by the Multiple Scale perturbation method, which leads to first-order amplitude-phase modulation equations, governing the slow dynamics of the cable. The wind speed, the amplitude of the support motion and the internal and external frequency detunings are set as control parameters. Numerical path-following techniques provide bifurcation diagrams as functions of the control parameters, able to highlight the interactions between in-plane and out-of-plane motions, as well as the effects of the simultaneous presence of the three sources of excitation.     

斜拉桥三维拉索风雨激振准两自由度模型

拉索风雨激振是当前桥梁工程和风工程界非常关注的研究课题。过去用于测量带人工水线的拉索模型都是二维的，所建立的理论模型也是建立在二维拉索气动力的基础上的。本文基于带人工水线三维拉索模型试验得到的气动力，建立了三维拉索风雨激振的准二自由度运动微分方程，讨论了运动方程中各种参数的取值，采用数值求解方法计算了拉索风雨激振振幅。计算结果和三维拉索人工降雨试验结果的对比表明，本文方法能较好地描述三维拉索风雨激振的特征。     

风力机叶片翼型动态试验技术研究

风力机叶片动态振荡过程往往伴随着俯仰和横摆同时进行, 以前对许多动态问题不清楚的阶段, 工程上不惜以增加叶片重量为代价而采用偏安全的设计, 通常忽略横摆振荡的影响; 大型风力机设计对获取翼型更加全面、准确的动态载荷提出了更高要求, 研究横摆振荡对翼型动态气动特性的影响规律具有重要意义. 本文首次开展翼型横摆振荡动态风洞试验研究, 采用“电子凸轮”技术代替机械凸轮实现了振荡频率和振荡角度的无级变化, 基于设计的电子外触发装置实现了对动态流场的实时测量, 实现了风洞来流、模型角位移和动态压力数据的同步采集, 分别开展了翼型静态测压、俯仰/横摆动态测压、粒子图像测速和荧光丝线等试验研究, 试验结果准度较高、规律合理; 分析了动态试验洞壁干扰影响机制. 研究表明, 横摆振荡翼型的气动曲线也存在明显迟滞效应; 随着振荡频率升高, 翼型俯仰和横摆振荡下的气动迟滞性均增强; 翼型俯仰振荡正行程的动态失速涡破裂有所延迟; 洞壁与模型端部交界处的强三维效应对翼型压力分布影响较大; 建立的横摆振荡试验技术可为风力机动态掠效应的研究提供技术支撑.      

Rainwater rivulets on a cable subject to windFilets d'eau de pluie sur un câble soumis au vent

Rainwater rivulets appear on inclined cables of cable-stayed bridges when wind and rain occur simultaneously. In a restricted range of parameters this is known to cause vibrations of high amplitudes on the cable. The mechanism underlying this effect is still under debate but the role of rainwater rivulets is certain. We use a standard lubrication model to analyse the dynamics of a water film on a cylinder under the effect of gravity and wind load. A simple criterion is then proposed for the appearance and position of rivulets, where the Froude number is the control parameter. Experiments with several geometries of cylinder covered with water in a wind tunnel show the evolution of the rivulets with the Froude number. Comparison of the prediction by the model with these experimental data shows that the main mechanism of rivulet formation and positioning is captured. To cite this article: C. Lemaitre et al., C. R. Mecanique 334 (2006).     

FREQUENCY DOMAIN CALCULATION METHOD FOR WIND-INDUCED RESPONSE OF MONOLAYER CABLE NET

以随机振动理论为基础,采用频域法对单层索网结构风振响应进行了研究,主要探讨不同计算方法和空间相干函数的选取等问题对索网结构风振响应的影响. 依据不同的计算方法和空间相干函数,建立了3 种分析模式进行了分析. 分析结果表明：对于频率密集的索网结构,需要考虑模态交叉项对计算结果的影响;空间相干函数的选取对计算结果影响较大,采用与风频率相干的空间相干函数更为合理.     

复杂工况下的大型风力机气动性能和尾迹研究Investigation of aerodynamic performance and wake of the large scale wind turbine in complicated conditions

在复杂工况下,大型风力机非定常特性会更严重,导致风力机气动性能变化和尾迹预测更加复杂。本文主要针对稳态偏航、动态偏航、风剪切和随机风速场等复杂工况,基于自由涡尾迹方法,嵌入复杂工况的模块,加入了动态失速模型和三维旋转效应模型修正,实现了复杂工况数值模拟计算,比较了不同复杂工况的气动载荷和尾迹形状。最后,得出了风力机在复杂工况下的气动性能、载荷和尾迹叶尖涡线特性,并计算出风力机在复杂工况下的气动载荷超调量和迟滞时间。对推进自由涡尾迹方法应用于风力机工程的大批工况载荷计算,提高大型风力机的载荷计算精度和设计水平等具有重要意义。     

漂浮运动对风力机气动特性的影响分析

海上浮式风机为蕴藏丰富的深海风能开发提供了有效的解决方案,浮式基础存在的大幅度纵荡、纵摇和艏摇运动可以改变风轮与流场间的相互作用,从而影响风力机的气动特性。基于叶素-动量理论及其修正方法,以NREL 5MW风力机为研究对象,考虑浮式基础运动对叶片不同径向位置处相对入流风速的影响,提出了风载荷的计算模型,通过编程计算获得了叶轮转矩和风力机功率,并比较了不同运动形式对风力机功率波动的影响。结果表明,纵摇对其功率特性影响最大,这为海上浮式风机的优化设计提供理论依据与数据基础。     

漂浮运动对风力机气动特性的影响分析Effect of floating foundation motion on the aerodynamic characteristics of the floating offshore wind turbine

海上浮式风机为蕴藏丰富的深海风能开发提供了有效的解决方案,浮式基础存在的大幅度纵荡、纵摇和艏摇运动可以改变风轮与流场间的相互作用,从而影响风力机的气动特性。基于叶素-动量理论及其修正方法,以NREL 5MW风力机为研究对象,考虑浮式基础运动对叶片不同径向位置处相对入流风速的影响,提出了风载荷的计算模型,通过编程计算获得了叶轮转矩和风力机功率,并比较了不同运动形式对风力机功率波动的影响。结果表明,纵摇对其功率特性影响最大,这为海上浮式风机的优化设计提供理论依据与数据基础。     

TWO-DIMENSIONAL VORTEX-INDUCED VIBRATION OF CABLE SUSPENSIONS

Resonant responses of suspended elastic cables driven by a steady current are investigated. Phenomenological fluid force models for alternate vortex-shedding are coupled with the nonlinear partial differential equations of cable motion. Decoupled cross-flow and in-line vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) are examined first using linearized and nonlinear cable models. The linearized cable model predicts well the basic characteristics of VIV and the nonlinear cable model captures the hysteresis often observed in experiments. Next, coupled cross-flow and in-line vibrations are evaluated by considering two principal coupling mechanisms: (i) cable structural nonlinearities, and (ii) coupled fluid lift and drag. Attention is focused on a “worst-case” resonant response where the natural frequencies for cable modes in the cross-flow and in-line directions are in the same 1:2 ratio as the excitation frequencies associated with lift and drag. The inclusion of cable structural nonlinearities alone leads to coupled responses that differ qualitatively (i.e., in number and stability of periodic motions) when compared to those of the decoupled model. The inclusion of coupled fluid lift and drag produces non-planar “figure eight” motions of the cable cross-section that exhibit similar characteristics to those previously measured on spring supported cylinders.