Current Flow Past Large Concrete Piers:
CFD Analysis Vs. Physical Model Tests
Author(s)
S. K. Chakrabarti
Abstract
During the design, construction and installation of a bridge pier over the Tacoma
Narrows, the pier was constructed in place as a floating caisson, which was
moored to hold it against a large current due to tidal changes in the Narrows.
The design of the mooring system required the knowledge of the magnitude of
current force due to ebb and tide. This current force on the caisson was
determined via a physical model test as well as a numerical model based on the
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method. The purpose of this paper is to
compare the CFD computations with the model test data and show the similarity
and disparity of the two results. A comparison between the CFD modeling and
physical modeling results was made. The mean drag, lift and vertical force
coefficients for the caisson are directly compared. Both the frequencies and
magnitudes at which the force peaks appear are directly compared through FFT
analysis. The frequency contents of the inline and transverse loads are compared
in the frequency domain. The frequencies give a qualitative comparison of the
extent of the vortices present in the CFD vs. model tests, since the frequencies
are a direct function of the number of vortices present in the flow. The
magnitudes of the peaks are indicative of the strength of the vortices present and
showed if the CFD method was able to identify accurately the flow pattern past
the caissons as well as highlighted any possible scaling effects of model tests.
Keywords: CFD analysis; concrete piers; current flow; interaction; model test.
1 Introduction
A new suspension bridge is being constructed in the Tacoma Narrows, close to
Seattle, Washington State. The new bridge mounted on 2 concrete caissons is
built just south of an existing bridge. The caissons of the new bridge are quite
Keywords
CFD analysis; concrete piers; current flow; interaction; model test.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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