Author(s)

A. Cigada, S. Malavasi, M. Vanalil

Abstract

A measurement system to characterise the hydrodynamic forces due to the interaction between a free surface flow and a bridge deck model of rectangular cross section has been developed. This topic has not been explored exhaustively in literature and the long lasting experience acquired in wind tunnel tests served as a reference. In addition to the wind tunnel measuring techniques the actual experimental situation raises new problems, both for the characteristics of instrumentation and the definition of boundary conditions. Two possible solutions have been analysed to evaluate the dynamic forces exchanged between the flow and the bridge: distributed pressure taps and direct force measurements. A couple of ad hoc dynamometers using strain gage transducers has been built. T

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