Significance of aero-elastic relationship in wind-resistant design of long-span bridges

Flutter is a typical phenomenon resulting from aeroelasticity of a long-span bridge. Suppressing the flutter has been mainly made by the alteration or optimization of the deck cross section. However, as the center-span length increases, more effective methods should be considered. Since flutter is one of the aero-elastic vibration modes, a mode control with the consideration of the aero-elastic relationship of the bridge may be effective instead of the flow pattern control around the deck. This paper presents new strategies for flutter control, which mainly focuses on the optimization of the entire bridge configuration, and discusses the significance of the aero-elastic relationship of long-span bridges. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.