Virtual wind tunnel: An alternative approach for the analysis of bridge behaviour under wind effects

The study of bridge responses under wind-induced loads is based upon full aeroelastic model testing or hybrid methods which use section model tests and subsequent computer analysis. Both methodologies present several strong points and some shortcomings, specially related with the visualization of the bridge dynamic behaviour. Nowadays, advances and improvements in computational power and computer aided design technologies make possible a new way towards the feasible design of long span bridges considering its aerodynamic and aeroelastic behaviour. The virtual wind tunnel (VWT) technique developed by the authors joins together accurate section model testing with computer aided design in order to obtain a detailed computer visualization of the complete bridge behaviour under wind flow. The results obtained for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the Messina Strait Bridge are presented.