Wake-induced vibration of ultra-long suspenders adjacent to bridge tower

The tower wake usually induces large-amplitude vibrations in adjacent suspenders of a long-span suspension bridge. In order to interpret the underlying mechanism of the significant wake-induced vibrations of ultra-long suspenders, the wake-induced vibration characteristics of tandem suspenders beside the bridge tower are investigated using computational fluid dynamics based simulation. First, the computational model of the bridge tower and suspenders is established. Subsequently, the effect of tower wake on suspender vibration is analyzed considering the inflow velocity and relative position between the tower and suspenders. Based on the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), the flow characteristics behind the tower and around the suspenders are investigated, and the governing mechanism of wake-induced vibrations of the suspenders is revealed ultimately. The results indicate that the wake-induced vibration of the suspender exhibits a lock-in phenomenon with large cross-wind amplitudes at specific incoming wind velocities. The wind loads on the suspender in both along-wind and cross-wind directions exhibit components with frequencies that are multiples of the vortex shedding frequency. The flow field can be accurately constructed using the first four POD modes with the largest energy. The symmetric POD modes are the primary components that contribute to the significant wake-induced vibrations of the suspenders.