Sequential numerical procedures for predicting flutter velocity of bridge sections

A sequential numerical procedure for predicting the flutter onset velocity of bridges without wind tunnel tests is presented. The proposed procedure consists of two phases. In the first phase, the unsteady aerodynamic forces acting on moving rigid bodies are evaluated from the finite element analyses. The Reynolds numbers of the simulated flows range from 400 to 2400. In the second phase, the flutter onset velocities are estimated by solving the aeroelastic equations. The results of numerical simulation for the four generic bridge deck sections show fairly good agreement with those of experiments despite the discrepancy in Reynolds number between the computations and experiments.