Aeroelastic Control of Long-Span Suspension Bridges

2011 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Michael R. Graham ◽  
David J. N. Limebeer ◽  
Xiaowei Zhao

The modeling, control, and dynamic stabilization of long-span suspension bridges are considered. By employing leading- and trailing-edge flaps in combination, we show that the critical wind speeds for flutter and torsional divergence can be increased significantly. The relatively less well known aerodynamic properties of leading-edge flaps will be studied in detail prior to their utilization in aeroelastic stability and control system design studies. The optimal approximation of the classical Theodorsen circulation function will be studied as part of the bridge section model building exercise. While a wide variety of control systems is possible, we focus on compensation schemes that can be implemented using passive mechanical components such as springs, dampers, gearboxes, and levers. A single-loop control system that controls the leading- and trailing-edge flaps by sensing the main deck pitch angle is investigated. The key finding is that the critical wind speeds for flutter and torsional divergence of the sectional model of the bridge can be greatly increased, with good robustness characteristics, through passive feedback control. Static winglets are shown to be relatively ineffective.

Author(s):  
Mohammed Rafiuddin Ahmed ◽  
Epeli Nabolaniwaqa

The flow characteristics and the lift and drag behavior of a newly designed thick trailing-edged airfoil that was provided with fixed trailing edge flaps (Gurney flaps) of 1% to 5% height right at the back of the airfoil were studied at different low Reynolds numbers (Re) and angles of attack for possible applications in wind turbines suitable for the wind speeds of 4–6 m/s that are common in the Pacific Island Countries. A thick trailing-edged blade section, AF300, that was designed and tested in a recent work for small horizontal axis wind turbines to improve the turbine’s startup and performance at low wind speeds was chosen for this study. Experiments were performed on the AF300 airfoil in a wind tunnel at different Re, flap heights and angles of attack. Pressure distributions were obtained across the surface of the airfoil and the lift and drag forces were measured for different cases. It was found that the flap considerably improves the suction on the upper surface of the airfoil resulting in a high lift coefficient. For some of the angles, in the case of 3 mm and 4 mm flaps, the peak Cp values on the suction surface were significantly higher compared to those without the flap. However, at angles of attack of 12° and above, this unusually high Cp on the upper surface close to the leading edge caused flow separation for some cases as the flow could not withstand the strong adverse pressure gradient. The CFX results matched most of the experimental results without flaps, except that the suction peak was lower numerically. The difference was higher for the case with flaps. It is clear from the results that trailing-edge flaps can be used to improve the performance of small wind turbines designed for low wind speeds.


Author(s):  
Kazutoshi Matsuda ◽  
Kusuo Kato ◽  
Kouki Arise ◽  
Hajime Ishii

According to the results of conventional wind tunnel tests on rectangular cross sections with side ratios of B/D = 2–8 (B: along-wind length (m), D: cross-wind length (m)), motion-induced vortex excitation was confirmed. The generation of motion-induced vortex excitation is considered to be caused by the unification of separated vortices from the leading edge and secondary vortices at the trailing edge [1]. Spring-supported test for B/D = 1.18 was conducted in a closed circuit wind tunnel (cross section: 1.8 m high×0.9 m wide) at Kyushu Institute of Technology. Vibrations were confirmed in the neighborhoods of reduced wind speeds Vr = V/fD = 2 and Vr = 8 (V: wind speed (m/s), f: natural frequency (Hz)). Because the reduced wind speed in motion-induced vortex excitation is calculated as Vr = 1.67×B/D = 1.67×1.18 = 2.0 [1], vibrations around Vr = 2 were considered to be motion-induced vortex excitation. According to the smoke flow visualization result for B/D = 1.18 which was carried out by the authors, no secondary vortices at the trailing edge were formed, although separated vortices from the leading edge were formed at the time of oscillation at the onset wind speed of motion-induced vortex excitation, where aerodynamic vibrations considered to be motion-induced vortex excitation were confirmed. It was suggested that motion-induced vortex excitation might possibly occur in the range of low wind speeds, even in the case of side ratios where secondary vortices at trailing edge were not confirmed. In this study, smoke flow visualizations were performed for ratios of B/D = 0.5–2.0 in order to find out the relation between side ratios of rectangular cross sections and secondary vortices at trailing edge in motion-induced vortex excitation. The smoke flow visualizations around the model during oscillating condition were conducted in a small-sized wind tunnel at Kyushu Institute of Technology. Experimental Reynolds number was Re = VD/v = 1.6×103. For the forced-oscillating amplitude η, the non-dimensional double amplitudes were set as 2η/D = 0.02–0.15. Spring-supported tests were also carried out in order to obtain the response characteristics of the models.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Kweder ◽  
Mary Ann Clarke ◽  
James E. Smith

Circulation control (CC) is a high-lift methodology that can be used on a variety of aerodynamic applications. This technology has been in the research and development phase for over sixty years primarily for fixed wing aircraft where the early models were referred to as “blown flaps”. Circulation control works by increasing the near surface velocity of the airflow over the leading edge and/or trailing edge of a lifting surface This phenomenon keeps the boundary layer jet attached to the wing surface thus increasing the lift generated on the surface. The circulation control airflow adds energy to the lift force through conventional airfoil lift production and by altering the circulation of stream lines around the airfoil. For this study, a 10:1 aspect ratio elliptical airfoil with a chord length of 11.8 inches and a span of 31.5 inches was inserted into the West Virginia University Closed Loop Wind Tunnel and was tested at varying wind speeds (80, 100, and 120 feet per second), angle of attack (zero to sixteen degrees), and blowing coefficients, ranging from 0.0006 to 0.0127 depending on plenum pressure. By comparing the non-circulation controlled wing with the active circulation control data, a trend was found as to the influence of circulation control on the stall characteristics of the wing for trailing edge active control. For this specific case, when the circulation control is in use on the 10:1 elliptical airfoil, the stall angle decreased, from eight degrees to six degrees, while providing a 70% increase in lift coefficient. It should be noted that due to the trailing edge location of the circulation control exit jet, a “virtual” camber is created with the free stream air adding length to the overall airfoil. Due to this phenomena, the actual stall angle measured increased from eight degrees on the un-augmented airfoil, to a maximum of twelve degrees.


1969 ◽  
Vol 73 (708) ◽  
pp. 1027-1028
Author(s):  
Henri Deplante

The interest of wings with variable sweepback springs directly from pure commonsense and appeals to no profound knowledge of aerodynamics for its justification. To realise the advantage of variable geometry, it is enough to know that only a wing of small relative thickness is capable of good performance at supersonic speeds and that by increasing the sweepback from 20° to 70° the thickness of a wing is divided by about 2. In the advanced position, the wing offers its full span to the airstream and with high-lift devices in action (leading-edge slats and trailing-edge flaps combined), the aeroplane can develop the considerable lift necessary for take-off and landing as well as for break-through and for slow approach. Wings still advanced but slats, flaps and undercarriage retracted, the aeroplane is in excellent maximum fineness condition for protracted cruising at subsonic speed or for a long wait. As soon as transonic (Mach No of more than 0-8) or supersonic speeds are in question, the wings are progressively folded back.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 20160078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermann Wagner ◽  
Matthias Weger ◽  
Michael Klaas ◽  
Wolfgang Schröder

Owls are an order of birds of prey that are known for the development of a silent flight. We review here the morphological adaptations of owls leading to silent flight and discuss also aerodynamic properties of owl wings. We start with early observations (until 2005), and then turn to recent advances. The large wings of these birds, resulting in low wing loading and a low aspect ratio, contribute to noise reduction by allowing slow flight. The serrations on the leading edge of the wing and the velvet-like surface have an effect on noise reduction and also lead to an improvement of aerodynamic performance. The fringes at the inner feather vanes reduce noise by gliding into the grooves at the lower wing surface that are formed by barb shafts. The fringed trailing edge of the wing has been shown to reduce trailing edge noise. These adaptations to silent flight have been an inspiration for biologists and engineers for the development of devices with reduced noise production. Today several biomimetic applications such as a serrated pantograph or a fringed ventilator are available. Finally, we discuss unresolved questions and possible future directions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Rafiuddin Ahmed ◽  
Epeli Nabolaniwaqa

The flow characteristics and the lift and drag behavior of a thick trailing-edged airfoil that was provided with fixed trailing-edge flaps (Gurney flaps) of 1–5% height right at the back of the airfoil were studied both experimentally and numerically at different low Reynolds numbers (Re) and angles of attack for possible applications in wind turbines suitable for the wind speeds of 4–6 m/s. The flap considerably improves the suction on the upper surface of the airfoil resulting in a higher lift coefficient. The drag coefficient also increased; however, the increase was less compared with the increase in the lift coefficient, resulting in a higher lift-to-drag ratio in the angles of attack of interest. The results show that trailing-edge flaps can improve the performance of blades designed for low wind speeds and can be directly applied to small wind turbines that are increasingly being used in remote places or in smaller countries.


Author(s):  
Yu M Tsirkunov ◽  
MA Lobanova ◽  
AI Tsvetkov ◽  
BA Schepanyuk

The large-scale vortex structure of flow in the near wake behind an aircraft during its run on a runway is investigated numerically. The geometrical aircraft configuration was taken close to a mid-range commercial aircraft like Boeing 737-300. It included all essential elements: a body (fuselage), wings with winglets, horizontal and vertical stabilizers, engine nacelles, nacelle pylons, inboard flap track fairings, leading-edge and trailing-edge flaps, and spoilers. The position of flaps and spoilers corresponded to the takeoff and landing run conditions. Computational simulation was based on solving the Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations closed with the Menter Shear Stress Transport turbulence model. Patterns of streamlines, fields of the axial vorticity and the turbulent intensity, vertical and horizontal velocity profiles in the wake are compared and discussed for both run regimes. The flow model was preliminary tested for validity by comparison of the calculated velocity profiles behind a reduced-scale aircraft model with those obtained in special wind tunnel experiments.


1988 ◽  
Vol 92 (914) ◽  
pp. 154-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. C. Hardy ◽  
S. P. Fiddes

SummaryA three-dimensional panel method has been used to calculate edge-suction forces for thin sharp-edged wings in incompressible flow. The suction forces have been used to estimate the vortex lift on the wings by means of the leading-edge suction analogy due to Polhamus.The results for planar wings are in acceptable agreement with other methods based on the suction analogy. A limited comparison with results from experiments for non-planar wings revealed good prediction of lift and drag increments associated with the deflection of leading and trailing edge flaps for ‘conventional’ wings of high sweep, but only moderate agreement for a grossly non-planar configuration.


2014 ◽  
Vol 633-634 ◽  
pp. 1263-1266
Author(s):  
Huang Yu

For modern long-span bridges, both the optimization of aerodynamic shape and the increase of torsional stiffness according to the result of the wind tunnel experiment could avoid the flutter instability.Vortex-inducedvibration with relatively large amplitude happens easily at low wind speeds. In this paper, based on wind tunnel experiment, by studying on the vortex-induced vibration characteristics of a long-span suspension bridge with single cable plane, aerodynamic measures for easing the vortex-induced vibration are given.


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