A non‐linear coupled fluid–structure aeroelastic analysis of a slender bridge deck

This paper presents a new numerical methodology for the integral aeroelastic instability analysis of slender structures, based on the appropriate conjugation of an algorithm for dynamic and geometrically non‐linear analysis of structures based on the finite element method with another algorithm of computational fluid dynamics (Finite volume method). It is considered a viscous incompressible unsteady turbulent bidimensional air flow solved on a structured control volume mesh. The computer code developed on the basis of this methodology is applied to the aeroelastic study of a simply supported slender bridge deck in order to find out the critical wind velocity leading to instability. Some of the most significant results associated with the analysis of the corresponding aeroelastic behaviour are presented. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.