Field Measurements of Wind Microclimate at the Vehicle Level on a Bridge Deck under Typical Canyon Terrain

The wind field characteristics of a bridge site are the key issues for driving the safety assessment condition of mountain canyon terrain. Field measurements on a bridge deck were conducted to investigate the microclimate wind environment at the vehicle level. The measurement points were arranged in the midspan and bridge tower regions along the bridge at vehicle height above the bridge deck. The height-dependent characteristics of the microclimate wind environment at the midspan and bridge tower regions were extensively analyzed. The results show that the mean wind profiles at midspan approximately confirm the power exponential distribution. However, the mean wind profiles show non-power-exponential distribution at the tower regions. The vertical mean wind speed profiles at the midspan and bridge tower regions were then statistically fitted and suggested. The wind speed distribution at the bridge tower regions showed obvious shielding or acceleration effects. Therefore, a typical wind envelope curve across the tower region was proposed along the driving direction. For the turbulence characteristics, turbulence intensities at the tower regions are larger than those at the midspan, and integral scales at the tower regions are smaller than those at the midspan. In this study, a double logarithm third polynomial was recommended to depict the energy distribution of the turbulence microclimate wind in the frequency domain instead of the commonly used empirical spectrum functions. Gust wind speeds were also discussed, and showed that gust wind speeds are more reasonable for evaluating vehicle driving safety and comfort in long-span bridges, especially at the tower regions.