Wind-resistant study on the steel middle pylon of Taizhou Yangtze River Bridge

The type of three-pylon suspension bridge is applied to more and more large-span bridges. Wind- resistance in design and construction of middle pylon is of great concern for this type of bridge. In this paper, both wind tunnel test and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) are introduced to the wind-resistant study on middle steel pylon of Taizhou Yangtze River Bridge. Through segment sectional model testing and CFD analyzing, more accurate aerodynamic force coefficients are suggested for the pylon’s structure design. Through full aero-elastic model testing, wind-induced vibration is checked, which includes vortex resonance, buffeting and galloping. All these results obtained play an important part in middle pylon’s actual design and construction. In the meantime, they are also meaningful references for other similar middle pylons.