[ Overview | Products/Services ]

The Aerodynamics Laboratory is used to study the complex interactions between wind and bridges or other highway structures.

The laboratory is used by engineers and researchers interested in the design, stability, safety, and performance of highway structures under all combinations of geographical and meteorological wind conditions.

The primary purpose of the laboratory is to evaluate new designs, investigate performance problems of in-service structures, develop effective retrofit solutions, establish the aerodynamic properties of structures and structural components, support the development of new design guides and specifications, develop more effective experimental procedures and simulation methods and explore fundamental wind engineering problems.

The Aerodynamics Laboratory is the only wind tunnel facility in the United States that is dedicated solely to the study of wind effects on transportation structures. It has the longest continuous history of exploring bridge aerodynamics to ensure the performance and safety of long-span bridges in strong winds and to advance our understanding of wind effects on transportation structures.

The laboratory is federally owned and is staffed by a team of experienced scientists and engineers in the areas of structural engineering, aerodynamics, experimental methods, computational fluid dynamics, and wind engineering.

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The Aerodynamics Laboratory provides the following products and services:

· Short and long-term monitoring of structural behavior

· Short and long-term monitoring of site wind conditions

· Wind tunnel experimental investigations of new and proposed bridge designs

· Review of external experimental programs and results

· Design and deployment of automated remote instrumentation systems

· Evaluation of bridge aerodynamic performance problems and design of retrofits

· Static, dynamic, and aerodynamic analysis of long-span bridge structures

· Study of flow and structure interaction

· Publication of staff research reports, journal articles, and conference papers

· Software for aerodynamic analysis

· Software for flow simulation

· Software for the study of aerodynamically induced structural response

· Investigation of stay cable dynamic properties

· Design certifications

· Recommended design modifications or retrofits

· Laboratory data for design, including - aerodynamic force coefficients, flutter derivatives, etc

· Recommended design specifications

· Extensive laboratory and field data archives

· Design of stay cable damping systems

· Continued contribution to the state of the art in wind engineering, bridge engineering, aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics and experimental methods

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