Investigation of edge fairing shaping effects on aerodynamic response of long-span bridge deck by unsteady RANS

Triangular edge fairings are widely used and attached to the edges of rectangular box girder bridge decks to improve their aerodynamic responses. Bridge deck with edge fairing should be shaped efficiently to obtain optimum aerodynamic responses. In this paper, the shaping effect of a triangular edge fairing on aerodynamic behaviour of a bridge deck is presented. A wide range of top and bottom plate slopes is utilized to change the shape of the fairing. The unsteady RANS simulation with the k–ω-SST turbulence model is used to simulate the flow. The flow is discretized by the finite volume method with second-order accuracy in space and time. The mean and rms values of the force coefficients are evaluated and the after-body velocity fluctuations are plotted. The aerodynamic responses are tried to explain by means of pressure and velocity distributions around the bridge deck. A relative comparison of the aerodynamic responses of perforated and solid handrails is also presented. It is found that a lower aerodynamic response can be obtained by properly shaping the triangular edge fairing.