AERODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF H-SECTION HANGERS WITH DIFFERENT SECTIONAL PARAMETERS

An in-depth investigation on the H-section hangers’ aerodynamic performances in forms of flutter, galloping and vortex shedding has been conducted through a series of wind tunnel tests. A total of 7 H-section models with different flange perforation ratios and depth-to-width ratio are tested to investigate their effects on aerodynamic behaviors of hangers, respectively. It is found that the flange perforation may enhance the aerodynamic capability against galloping at a weak axis as well as the vortex resonance, but have no obvious effects on flutter instability and galloping instability for a strong axis, at least for the shallow H-section with H/B=0.417. Increasing the depth-to-width ratios notably improves the galloping performances in both weak axis and strong axis, and the aerodynamic performances in forms of flutter and vortex shedding could also be significantly influenced by the increase of depth-to-width ratios. The results indicate the increase of depth-to-width is better than the flange perforation in resisting wind-induced vibrations of H-section hangers.