Aerodynamic behavior analysis of Rio-Niterói bridge by means of computational fluid dynamics

Prior installation of a novel system of dynamic controllers the Rio-Niterói bridge was frequently set into vortex-induced oscillations by cross-winds of relatively low velocities. Measurement records showed that the greater amplitudes were related to the presence of a line of long and tall vehicles traveling along the windward lane. This paper analyzes the effect of the presence of tall vehicles on the aerodynamic behavior of this bridge by means of 2D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. The modeling of turbulence follows a methodology known as large eddy simulation (LES) in which the large scales of turbulence are resolved by current discretization, while the small ones are modeled by means of adaptive procedures in time and space. To describe the movement of the structure in relation to the fluid, an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) referential was adopted. The results obtained from the application of CFD to the structural bridge profile were validated by experimental results from wind tunnel tests. This validation allowed the evaluation of the bridge aerodynamic behavior in the presence of large vehicles, demonstrating that this feature contributes to increasing the amplitudes of oscillations.