Discrete vortex method simulations of aerodynamic admittance in bridge aerodynamics

The meshless and remeshed Discrete Vortex Method (DVM) has been widely used in academia and by the industry to model two-dimensional flow around bluff bodies. The implementation “DVMFLOW” [1] is used by the bridge design company COWI to determine and visualise the flow field around bridge sections, and to determine aerodynamic forces and the corresponding flutter limit. A simulation of the three-dimensional bridge responseto turbulent wind is carried out by quasi steady theory by modelling the bridge girder as a line like structure [2], applying the aerodynamic load coefficients found from the current version of DVMFLOW in a strip wise fashion. Neglecting the aerodynamic admittance, i.e. the correlation of the instantaneous lift force to the turbulent fluctuations in the vertical velocities, leads to higher response to high frequency atmospheric turbulence than would be obtained from wind tunnel tests.