Numerical simulation of wind effects on the temperature analysis of bridges

Structural temperatures and their uneven distributions have significantly negative effects on bridges. It is very important to accurately calculate the structural temperatures. Structural temperatures are deeply affected by the surrounding weather conditions, and the environmental wind is a critical factor. In this study, the wind effects on the thermal analysis of bridges are investigated using numerical simulation. Frist, the traditional theory and method are briefly introduced to show the important effects of wind on structural heat transfer analysis. Then, a new approach is proposed to take account of the wind effects for temperature analysis of bridges. At last, numerical study based on the finite element transient heat transfer analysis of a box-girder bridge is carried out and discussed to verify the proposed method. The results indicate that the proposed method is more reasonable than the traditional methods. This method can be easily implemented in practice for temperature analysis of bridges.