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Motions of a suspension bridge immersed in turbulent wind flows, including both mean and stochastic, can under certain conditions lead to the degradation of the structure׳s torsional stiffness and ensuing aerodynamic torsional divergence (ATD). It is the incompressibility of the main cables that determines their effectiveness as supporting members be limited in a tension state, and dropping out of either one cable from a tension state could result in the vanish of the torsional stiffness contributed by the whole cable system. Although the physical conception is quite explicit, evaluation of the critical threshold of ATD of a suspension bridge, when experiencing stochastic aerodynamic responses, can be complicated by the deformations of the towers, the lateral oscillations of the deck and cables, and other high-order modes participating in the vibration. In view of this, a criterion based on the tracking of the length of the main cables is presented in this study. It is shown that, with the numerical example, the advent of ATD, the degradation of the system׳s stiffness, as well as some striking post-ATD behaviors, can be well explained with the proposed model by tracking the cable lengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The mechanism of aerostatic torsional divergence (ATD) of long-span suspension bridges is investigated. A theoretical analysis on the basis of a generalized model is presented, showing that the vertical motion of a bridge deck is crucial to the torsional stiffness of the whole suspended system, and that the vertical motion of either cable with a magnitude beyond a certain threshold could result in a sudden degradation of the torsional stiffness of the system. This vertical motion-induced degradation of stiffness is recognized as the main reason for the ATD. Long-span suspension bridges are susceptible to such a type of divergence, especially when they are immersed in turbulent wind fields. The divergences that occur in turbulent wind fields differ significantly from those in smooth wind fields, and the difference is well explained by the generalized model that the loosening of any one cable could result in the vanishing of the part of stiffness provided by the whole cable system. The mechanism revealed in this paper leads to a definition of the critical wind speed of the ATD in a turbulent flow; that is, the one resulting in a vertical motion so large as to loosen either cable to a stressless state. Numerical results from the nonlinear finite-element (FE) analysis of the Xihoumen suspension bridge, in conjunction with observations from wind tunnel tests on an aero-elastic full bridge model, are in support of the viewpoint presented in this study. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]