Imperfect Correlation of Vortex-Induced Fluctuating Pressures and Vertical Forces on a Typical Flat Closed Box Deck

A wind tunnel test of synchronized pressure measurement on a spring-suspended sectional model of a flat closed box deck at a large scale of 1/20 was carried out by taking Xiangshan Harbour Bridge in China as background. The chordwise correlation of the fluctuating aerodynamic pressures (FAP) on the surface of the box deck was then investigated at both stationary state and vortex-induced resonance (VIR) states of the deck model. Afterwards, an approximate approach was developed for estimating the spanwise correlation coefficients of pure vertical vortex-shedding force (VSF) on the deck under VIR state. On this basis, the spanwise correlation coefficients of both the integrated total vertical fluctuating aerodynamic force (FAF) and the pure vertical VSF on the flat box deck were then studied and compared to each other quantitatively at the stationary state as well as the VIR states at various wind speeds. Finally, the spanwise correlation coefficients of the surface FAP at some typical positions on the deck cross section were calculated and compared with that of the total vertical FAF and the vertical VSF. The results show that the chordwise correlation of the FAP on stationary deck is not strong at most part of the deck surface, however, can be enhanced with the increase of incident wind speed. The chordwise correlation of FAP can also be enhanced quite significantly by the deck oscillation under VIR states, but is still imperfect. Furthermore, the spanwise correlations of FAP at different positions on the deck cross section are clearly different from each other, and much weaker than that of the total vertical FAF, for both the stationary state and the VIR states of the deck. However, they are generally much stronger than that of the pure VSF in cases of notable VIR, and much weaker in the cases of slight VIR, such as near the onset of VIR. The spanwise correlation characteristics of both the pure vertical VSF and the total vertical FAF are hence very different from those of the surface pressures. Moreover, the spanwise correlation of the total vertical FAF on cross sections can be greatly intensified by the VIR because of the existence of a large portion of vortex-induced self-excited force (VISEF). On the other hand, the spanwise correlation of the vertical VSF under the VIR states is much weaker than that of total vertical FAF as well as that of the pure vertical VSF under the stationary state at same wind speeds. Finally, the variations of the spanwise correlation of both the total vertical FAF and the pure vertical VSF with the response displacement of VIR is quite complicated. The most violent VIR, the most correlated total FAF and the most correlated VSF occur generally at different wind speeds.