Wind response sensitivities of a long suspension bridge

The sensitivities of wind-induced design section forces in the main girder of a suspension bridge with a span greater than 1000m are determined under variation of 20 different wind response calculation parameters. The investigated parameters cover turbulence characteristics such as length scales and correlation decay constants, as well as aerodynamic properties of the structure including both static coefficients and aerodynamic derivatives. The response calculations are performed considering both fully correlated static mean wind effects as well as low-frequent quasi-static and resonant turbulence effects. The study further comprises a detailed assessment of the convergence of stresses in the main girder as a function of number of included eigenmodes. Additionally, a full multi-modal response calculation including aeroelastic coupling effects is performed to quantify the accuracy of the simpler mode-by-mode calculation method.