Helicopter rotor system operates in a highly dynamic and unsteady aerodynamic environment leading to severe vibratory loads on the rotor system. Repeated exposure to these severe loading conditions can induce damage in the composite rotor blade which may lead to a catastrophic failure. Therefore, an interest in the structural health monitoring (SHM) of the composite rotor blades has grown markedly in recent years. Two important issues are addressed in this thesis; (1) structural modeling and aeroelastic analysis of the damaged rotor blade and (2) development of a model based rotor health monitoring system. The effect of matrix cracking, the first failure mode in composites, is studied in detail for a circular section beam, box-beam and two-cell airfoil section beam. Later, the effects of further progressive damages such as debonding/delamination and fiber breakage are considered for a two-cell airfoil section beam representing a stiff-inplane helicopter rotor blade. It is found that the stiffness decreases rapidly in the initial phase of matrix cracking but becomes almost constant later as matrix crack saturation is reached. Due to matrix cracking, the bending and torsion stiffness losses at the point of matrix crack saturation are about 6-12 percent and about 25-30 percent, respectively. Due to debonding/delamination, the bending and torsion stiffness losses are about 6-8 percent and about 40-45 percent after matrix crack saturation, respectively. The stiffness loss due to fiber breakage is very rapid and leads to the final failure of the blade. An aeroelastic analysis is performed for the damaged composite rotor in forward flight and the numerically simulated results are used to develop an online health monitoring system. For fault detection, the variations in rotating frequencies, tip bending and torsion response, blade root loads and strains along the blade due to damage are investigated. It is found that peak-to-peak values of blade response and loads provide a good global damage indicator and result in considerable data reduction. Also, the shear strain is a useful indicator to predict local damage. The structural health monitoring system is developed using the physics based models to detect and locate damage from simulated noisy rotor system data. A genetic fuzzy system (GFS) developed for solving the inverse problem of detecting damage from noise contaminated measurements by hybridizing the best features of fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms. Using the changes in structural measurements between the damaged and undamaged blade, a fuzzy system is generated and the rule-base and membership functions optimized by genetic algorithm. The GFS is demonstrated using frequency and mode shape based measurements for various beam type structures such as uniform cantilever beam, tapered beam and non-rotating helicopter blade. The GFS is further demonstrated for predicting the internal state of the composite structures using an example of a composite hollow circular beam with matrix cracking damage mode. Finally, the GFS is applied for online SHM of a rotor in forward flight. It is found that the GFS shows excellent robustness with noisy data, missing measurements and degrades gradually in the presence of faulty sensors/measurements. Furthermore, the GFS can be developed in an automated manner resulting in an optimal solution to the inverse problem of SHM. Finally, the stiffness degradation of the composite rotor blade is correlated to the life consumption of the rotor blade and issues related to damage prognosis are addressed.

Analysis of unsteady flows is a very challenging topic of research. A decade ago, potential flow equations were used to predict unsteady pressures on oscillating bodies. Recognising the fact that nonlinear aerodynamics is essential to analyse unsteady flows accurately, particularly in transonic and supersonic flows, different Euler formulations operating on moving grids have emerged recently as important CFD tools for unsteady aerodynamics. Numerical solution of Euler equations on moving grids based on upwind schemes such as the ones due to van Leer and Roe have been developed for the purpose of numerical simulation of unsteady transonic and supersonic flows. In the present work, Euler computations based on yet another recent robust upwind scheme (for steady flows) namely Kinetic Flux Vector Splitting (KFVS) scheme due to Deshpande and Mandal is chosen for further development of a time accurate Euler solver to operate on problems involving moving boundaries. The development of an Euler code based on this scheme is likely to be highly useful to analyse problems of unsteady aerodynamics and computational aeroelasiticity especially when it is noted that KFVS has been found to be an extremely robust scheme for computation of subsonic, transonic, supersonic and hypersonic flows. The KFVS scheme, basically exploits the connection between the linear scalar Boltzmann equation of kinetic theory of gases and the nonlinear vector conservation law, that is, Euler equations of fluid dynamics through moment method strategy. The KFVS scheme has inherent simplicity in splitting the flux even on moving grids due to underlying particle model. The inherent simplicity of KFVS for moving grid problems is due to its relationship with the Boltzmann equation. If a surface is moving with velocity w and a particle has velocity v, then it is quite reasonable to do the splitting based on (v-w)<0 or >0. Only particles having velocity v greater than w will cross the moving surface from left to right and similar arguments hold good for particles moving in opposite direction. It is therefore quite natural to extend KFVS by splitting the Maxwellian velocity distribution at Boltzmann level based on the sign of the normal component of the relative velocity. The relative velocity is the difference between the molecular velocity (v) and the velocity of the moving surface(w). This inherent simplicity of the Kinetic Flux Vector Splitting scheme on Moving Grids (KFMG) method has prompted us to extend the same ideas to 2-D and 3-D problems leading to the present KFMG method. If w is set to zero then KFMG formulation reduces to the one corresponding to KFVS. Thus KFMG formulations axe generalisation of the KFVS formulation. In 2-D and 3-D cases, in addition to the KFMG formulation, the method to move the grids, the appropriate boundary conditions for treating moving surfaces and techniques to improve accuracy in space and time are required to be developed. The 2-D and 3-D formulations based on Kinetic Flux Vector Splitting scheme on Moving Grids method have been developed for computing unsteady flows. Between two successive time steps, the body changes its orientation in case of an oscillation or it deforms when subjected to, aerodynamic loads. In either of these cases the grid corresponding to the first time step has to be moved or regenerated around the displaced or deformed body. There are several approaches available to generate grids around moving bodies. In the present work, the 'spring analogy method' is followed to obtain grid around deflected geometries within the frame work of structured grid. Using this method, the grids are moved from previous time to the current time. This method is capable of tackling any kind of aeroelastic deformation of the body. For oscillating bodies, a suitable boundary condition enforcing the flow tangency on the body needs to be developed. As a first attempt, the body surface has been treated as an 1-D piston undergoing compression and expansion. Then, a more general Kinetic Moving Boundary Condition(KMBC) has been developed. The KMBC uses specular reflection model of kinetic theory of gases. In order to treat fixed outer boundary, Kinetic Outer Boundary Condition(KOBC) has been applied. The KOBC is more general in the sense that, it can treat different type of boundaries (subsonic, supersonic, inflow or out flow boundary). A 2-D cell-centered finite volume KFMG Euler code to operate on structured grid has been developed. The time accuracy is achieved by incorporating a fourth order Runge-Kutta time marching method. The space accuracy has been enhanced by using high resolution scheme as well as second order scheme using the method of reconstruction of fluxes. First, the KFMG Euler code has been applied to standard test cases for computing steady flows around NACA 0012 and NACA 64AQ06 airfoils in transonic flow. For these two airfoils both computational and experimental results are available in literature. It is thus possible to verify (that is, prove the claim that code is indeed solving the partial differential equations + boundary conditions posed to the code) and validate(that is, comparison with experimental results) the 2-D KFMG Euler code. Having verified and validated the 2-D KFMG Euler code for the standard test cases, the code is then applied to predict unsteady flows around sinusoidally oscillating NACA 0012 and NACA 64A006 airfoils in transonic flow. The computational and experimental unsteady results are available in literature for these airfoils for verification and validation of the present results. The unsteady lift and normal force coefficients have been predicted fairly accurately by all the CFD codes. However there is some difficulty about accurate prediction of unsteady pitching moment coefficient. Even Navier-Stokes code could not predict pitching moment accurately. This issue needs further in depth study and probably intensive computation which have not been undertaken in the present study. Next, a two degrees of £reedom(2-DOF) structural dynamics model of an airfoil undergoing pitch and plunge motions has been coupled with the 2-D KFMG Euler code for numerical simulation of aeroelastic problems. This aeroelastic analysis code is applied to NACA 64A006 airfoil undergoing pitch and plunge motions in transonic flow to obtain aeroelastic response characteristics for a set of structural parameters. For this test case also computed results are available in literature for verification. The response characteristics obtained have showed three modes namely stable, neutrally stable and unstable modes of oscillations. It is interesting to compare the value of airfoil-to-air mass ratio (Formula) obtained by us for neutrally stable condition with similar values obtained by others and some differences between them are worth mentioning here. The values of \i for neutral stability are different for different authors. The differences in values of (Formula) predicted by various authors are primarily due to differences which can be due to grid as well as mathematical model used. For example, the Euler calculations, TSP calculations and full potential calculations always show differences in shock location for the same flow problem. Changes in shock location will cause change in pressure distribution on airfoil which in turn will cause changes in values of \L for conditions of neutral stability. The flutter speed parameter(U*) has also been plotted with free stream Mach number for two different values of airfoil - to - air mass ratio. These curves shown a dip when the free stream Mach number is close to 0.855. This is referred as "Transonic Dip Phenomenon". The shock waves play a dominant role in the mechanism of transonic dip phenomenon. Lastly, cell-centered finite volume KFMG 3-D Euler code has been developed to operate on structured grids. The time accuracy is achieved by incorporating a fourth order Runge-Kutta method. The space accuracy has been enhanced by using high resolution scheme. This code has 3-D grid movement module which is based on spring analogy method. The KMBC to treat oscillating 3-D configuration and KOBC for treating 3-D outer boundary have also been formulated and implemented in the code. The 3-D KFMG Euler code has been first verified and validated for 3-D steady flows around standard shapes such as, transonic flow past a hemisphere cylinder and ONERA M6 wing. This code has also been used for predicting hypersonic flow past blunt cone-eylinder-flare configuration for which experimental data are available. Also, for this case, the results are compared with a similar Euler code. Then the KFMG Euler code has been used for predicting steady flow around ogive-cylinder-ogive configuration with elliptical cross section. The aerodynamic coefficients obtained have been compared with those of another Euler code. Thus, the 3-D KFMG Euler code has been verified and validated extensively for steady flow problems. Finally, the 3-D KFMG based Euler code has been applied to an oscillating ogive-cylinder-ogive configuration in transonic flow. This test case has been chosen as it resembles the core body of a flight vehicle configuration of interest to DRDO,India. For this test case, the unsteady lift coefficients are available in literature for verifying the present results. Two grid sizes are used to perform the unsteady calculations using the present KFMG 3-D Euler code. The hysteresis loops of lift and moment coefficients confirmed the unsteady behaviour during the oscillation of the configuration. This has proved that, the 3-D formulations are capable of predicting the unsteady flows satisfactorily. The unsteady results obtained for a grid with size of 45x41x51 which is very close to the grid size chosen in the reference(Nixon et al.) are considered for comparison. It has been mentioned in the reference that, a phase lag of (Formula) was observed in lift coefficients with respect to motion of the configuration for a free stream Mach number of 0.3 with other conditions remaining the same. The unsteady lift coefficients obtained using KFMG code as well as those available in literature are plotted for the same flow conditions. Approximately the same phase lag of (Formula) is present (for (Formula)) between the lift coefficient curves of KFMG and due to Nixon et al. The phase lag corrected plot of lift coefficient obtained by Nixon et al. is compared with the lift coefficient versus time obtained by 3-D KFMG Euler code. The two results compare well except that the peaks are over predicted by KFMG code. It is nut clear at this stage whether our results should at all match with those due to Nixon et al. Further in depth study is obviously required to settle the issue. Thus the Kinetic Flux Vector Splitting on Moving Grids has been found to be a very good and a sound method for splitting fluxes and is a generalisation of earlier KFVS on fixed grids. It has been found to be very successful in numerical simulation of unsteady aerodynamics and computational aeroelasticity.

Helicopters suffer from severe vibration levels compared to fixed-wing aircraft. The main source of vibration in a helicopter is the main rotor which operates in a highly unsteady aerodynamic environment. Active vibration control methods are effective in helicopter vibration suppression since they can adapt to various flight conditions and often involve low weight penalty. One such method is the actively controlled flap (ACF) approach. In the ACF approach, a trailing-edge flap (TEF) located in each rotor blade is deflected at higher harmonics of rotor frequency to reduce vibratory loads at the rotor hub. The ACF approach is attractive because of its simplicity in practical implementation, low actuation power and enhanced airworthiness, since the flap control is independent of the primary control system. Multiple-flaps are better suited to modify the aerodynamic loading over the rotor blade and hence offer more flexibility compared to a single flap. They also provide the advantage of redundancy over single-flap configuration. However, issues like the number, location and size of these individual flaps need to be addressed based on logic and a suitable performance criteria. Preliminary studies on a 4-bladed hingeless rotor using simple aerodynamic and wake models predict that multiple-flaps are capable of 70-75 percent reduction in hub vibration levels. Numerical studies confirm that multiple-flaps require significantly less control effort as compared to single-flap configuration for obtaining similar reductions in hub vibration levels. Detailed studies include more accurate aerodynamic and wake models for the rotor with TEF’s. A simple and efficient flap control algorithm is chosen from literature and modified for use in multiple-flap configuration to actuate every flap near complete authority. The flap algorithm is computationally efficient and performs creditably at both high and low forward speeds. This algorithm works reasonably well in the presence of zero-mean Gaussian noise in hub load data. It is also fairly insensitive to small changes in plant parameters, such as, blade mass and stiffness properties. The optimal locations of multiple TEF’s for maximum reduction in hub vibration are determined using Response Surface methodology. Piezoelectric stack actuators are the most promising candidates for actuation of full-scale TEF’s on helicopter rotors. A major limitation of piezoelectric actuators is their lack of accuracy due to nonlinearity and hysteresis. The hysteresis in the actuators is modeled using the classical Preisach model (CPM). Experimental data from literature is used to estimate the Preisach distribution function. The hub vibration in this case is reduced by about 81-86 percent from baseline conditions. The performance of the ACF mechanism can be further improved by using an accurate hysteresis compensation scheme. However, using a linear model for the piezoelectric actuator or an inaccurate compensation scheme can lead to deterioration in ACF performance. Finally, bench-top experiments are conducted on a commercially available piezostack actuator (APA500L from CEDRAT Technologies) to study its dynamic hysteresis characteristics. A rate-dependent dynamic hysteresis model based on CPM is used to model the actuator. The unknown coefficients in the model are identified using experiments and validated. Numerical simulations show the importance of modeling actuator hysteresis in helicopter vibration control using TEF’s. A final configuration of multiple flaps is then proposed by including the effects of actuator hysteresis and using the response surface approach to determine the optimal flap locations. It is found that dynamic hysteresis not only affects the vibration reduction levels but also the optimal location of the TEF's.

Les instabilités aéroélastiques de bandes d’acier constituent aujourd’hui l’un des problèmes majeurs dans les sections de refroidissement par jets impactants des lignes de recuit continues.En effet, le traitement thermique des nouveaux aciers nécessite de très fortes pentes de température impliquant constamment des augmentations de vitesse de soufflage susceptibles de mettre en jeu des instabilités aéroélastiques. Des flottements ainsi que des divergences de bande ont déjà été constatées et identifiées. Ces deux instabilités impliquent dans la plupart des cas des chocs entre la bande et les buses de soufflage ce qui engendre des défauts de surface sur la bande.Un banc d’essai a été conçu et fabriqué dans le but d’analyser ces instabilités et d’anticiper leur apparition. A partir d’observations, la dynamique structurelle de la bande a été simplifiée à un mode de rotation rigide. Le banc comporte une plaque oscillante en mouvement forcé.Celle-ci est impactée par un dispositif de plusieurs jets axisymétriques turbulents ayant une disposition identique à celle des tours industrielles. Les efforts aérodynamiques stationnaires et instationnaires agissant sur la plaque sont mesurés au moyen de capteurs de pression.L’impact de plusieurs jets en interaction crée de très importants gradients de pression sur la plaque il est donc nécessaire que la grille de prises de pression soit très fine pour que l’estimation des efforts aérodynamiques soit correcte. La plaque est donc instrumentée de 91capteurs de pression sur une surface de 18 cm². Elle peut également être translatée dans les ois directions de l’espace, ce qui permet d’obtenir la distribution des efforts instationnaires ainsi que des coefficients aéroélastiques sur une grande surface de plaque et à différentes distances d’impact.Les mesures de pression stationnaires ont permis d’établir les courbes d’évolution des efforts d’impact des jets sur la plaque en fonction de la distance jet-plaque ainsi que de la géométrie des buses. Les résultats ont permis de déterminer la stabilité statique de la plaque en mouvement de pompage. Les mesures de vitesses des jets libres ont été effectuées paranémométrie à fil chaud et ont permis de déterminer leurs propriétés statistiques.Les mesures de coefficients aéroélastiques sur la plaque en rotation ont été effectuées surune seule géométrie de soufflage, pour différentes vitesses réduites. Les résultats mettent en évidence l’importance des effets de bords sur la stabilité de plaque. Des méthodes de post traitements ont proposées afin d’extrapoler les résultats à différentes largeurs de bande. Ils sont confrontés aux travaux de Regardin et al. (réf. [1]) et mettent en évidence des désaccords avec le cas réel. Des suggestions sont apportées afin d’améliorer la représentativité du banc vis-à-vis des bandes industrielles. / Aeroelastic instabilities of steel strips impinged by arrays of cooling gas jets have becomeone of the main issues in cooling sections of continuous annealing lines. Indeed, the new steeltreatments require very high temperature variation rates which involve increases in jetvelocities that are likely to onset some aeroelastic instabilities. Strip flutter and divergencehave already been observed and identified. These two aeroelastic instabilities imply a strongrisk of contact with the blowing boxes, which can seriously blemish the strip.An experimental test rig was designed and built in order to analyze and predict of theseinstabilities. From observations, the strip’s structural dynamics was simulated by a rigidrotation mode. The rig included a forced oscillating plate which is impinged by an array ofaxisymmetric jets having the exact industrial geometry. The plate was instrumented withpressure sensors to measure the steady and unsteady surface pressures. The impingement ofinteracting jets creates very large pressure gradients on the plate and therefore a tight mesh ofpressure taps (91 over an 18cm² jet impingement surface) was necessary to allow a goodestimation of the aerodynamic loads The plate could also be moved in the three coordinatedirections as to obtain surface mappings of the unsteady jet forces and aeroelastic coefficientscan be obtained over a wide area and different jet-to-plate distances.The variation of the impinging aerodynamic forces was established as a function of the jetto-plate distance for different nozzle geometries. These results were used to determine the jetstatic stability in plunging motion. Velocity and turbulence measurements in free jets werecarried out using hot wire anemometry in order to determine their statistical properties.Aeroelastic coefficient measurements were carried out on the oscillating plate with onlyone nozzle geometry and different reduced velocities. Results show that the plate’s stability ismainly dependent on the boundary effects. Post processing methods are suggested in order toapply the results to larger plates. Results are compared to the data of Regardin et al. (réf. [1])and emphasize some discrepancies with respect to the real case. Finally some improvementsto the test-rig are suggested for it to be more representative of the industrial situation.

Les instabilités aéroélastiques de bandes d’acier constituent aujourd’hui l’un des problèmes majeurs dans les sections de refroidissement par jets impactants des lignes de recuit continues.En effet, le traitement thermique des nouveaux aciers nécessite de très fortes pentes de température impliquant constamment des augmentations de vitesse de soufflage susceptibles de mettre en jeu des instabilités aéroélastiques. Des flottements ainsi que des divergences de bande ont déjà été constatées et identifiées. Ces deux instabilités impliquent dans la plupart des cas des chocs entre la bande et les buses de soufflage ce qui engendre des défauts de surface sur la bande.Un banc d’essai a été conçu et fabriqué dans le but d’analyser ces instabilités et d’anticiper leur apparition. A partir d’observations, la dynamique structurelle de la bande a été simplifiée à un mode de rotation rigide. Le banc comporte une plaque oscillante en mouvement forcé.Celle-ci est impactée par un dispositif de plusieurs jets axisymétriques turbulents ayant une disposition identique à celle des tours industrielles. Les efforts aérodynamiques stationnaires et instationnaires agissant sur la plaque sont mesurés au moyen de capteurs de pression.L’impact de plusieurs jets en interaction crée de très importants gradients de pression sur la plaque il est donc nécessaire que la grille de prises de pression soit très fine pour que l’estimation des efforts aérodynamiques soit correcte. La plaque est donc instrumentée de 91capteurs de pression sur une surface de 18 cm². Elle peut également être translatée dans les ois directions de l’espace, ce qui permet d’obtenir la distribution des efforts instationnaires ainsi que des coefficients aéroélastiques sur une grande surface de plaque et à différentes distances d’impact.Les mesures de pression stationnaires ont permis d’établir les courbes d’évolution des efforts d’impact des jets sur la plaque en fonction de la distance jet-plaque ainsi que de la géométrie des buses. Les résultats ont permis de déterminer la stabilité statique de la plaque en mouvement de pompage. Les mesures de vitesses des jets libres ont été effectuées paranémométrie à fil chaud et ont permis de déterminer leurs propriétés statistiques.Les mesures de coefficients aéroélastiques sur la plaque en rotation ont été effectuées surune seule géométrie de soufflage, pour différentes vitesses réduites. Les résultats mettent en évidence l’importance des effets de bords sur la stabilité de plaque. Des méthodes de post traitements ont proposées afin d’extrapoler les résultats à différentes largeurs de bande. Ils sont confrontés aux travaux de Regardin et al. (réf. [1]) et mettent en évidence des désaccords avec le cas réel. Des suggestions sont apportées afin d’améliorer la représentativité du banc vis-à-vis des bandes industrielles. / Aeroelastic instabilities of steel strips impinged by arrays of cooling gas jets have becomeone of the main issues in cooling sections of continuous annealing lines. Indeed, the new steeltreatments require very high temperature variation rates which involve increases in jetvelocities that are likely to onset some aeroelastic instabilities. Strip flutter and divergencehave already been observed and identified. These two aeroelastic instabilities imply a strongrisk of contact with the blowing boxes, which can seriously blemish the strip.An experimental test rig was designed and built in order to analyze and predict of theseinstabilities. From observations, the strip’s structural dynamics was simulated by a rigidrotation mode. The rig included a forced oscillating plate which is impinged by an array ofaxisymmetric jets having the exact industrial geometry. The plate was instrumented withpressure sensors to measure the steady and unsteady surface pressures. The impingement ofinteracting jets creates very large pressure gradients on the plate and therefore a tight mesh ofpressure taps (91 over an 18cm² jet impingement surface) was necessary to allow a goodestimation of the aerodynamic loads The plate could also be moved in the three coordinatedirections as to obtain surface mappings of the unsteady jet forces and aeroelastic coefficientscan be obtained over a wide area and different jet-to-plate distances.The variation of the impinging aerodynamic forces was established as a function of the jetto-plate distance for different nozzle geometries. These results were used to determine the jetstatic stability in plunging motion. Velocity and turbulence measurements in free jets werecarried out using hot wire anemometry in order to determine their statistical properties.Aeroelastic coefficient measurements were carried out on the oscillating plate with onlyone nozzle geometry and different reduced velocities. Results show that the plate’s stability ismainly dependent on the boundary effects. Post processing methods are suggested in order toapply the results to larger plates. Results are compared to the data of Regardin et al. (réf. [1])and emphasize some discrepancies with respect to the real case. Finally some improvementsto the test-rig are suggested for it to be more representative of the industrial situation.

Response of flexible structures — such as cable-supported bridges and aircraft wings — is associated with a number of uncertainties in structural and flow parameters. This thesis is aimed at efficient uncertainty quantification in a few such flow and flow-induced structural response problems. First, the uncertainty quantification in the lift force exerted on a submerged body in a potential flow is considered. To this end, a new method — termed here as semi-intrusive stochastic perturbation (SISP) — is proposed. A sensitivity analysis is also performed, where for the global sensitivity analysis (GSA) the Sobol’ indices are used. The polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) is used for estimating these indices. Next, two stability problems —divergence and flutter — in the aeroelasticity are studied in the context of reliability based design optimization (RBDO). Two modifications are proposed to an existing PCE-based metamodel to reduce the computational cost, where the chaos coefficients are estimated using Gauss quadrature to gain computational speed and GSA is used to create nonuniform grid to reduce the cost even further. The proposed method is applied on a rectangular unswept cantilever wing model. Next, reliability computation in limit cycle oscillations (LCOs) is considered. While the metamodel performs poorly in this case due to bimodality in the distribution, a new simulation-based scheme proposed to this end. Accordingly, first a reduced-order model (ROM) is used to identify the critical region in the random parameter space. Then the full-scale expensive model is run only over a this critical region. This is applied to the rectangular unswept cantilever wing with cubic and fifth order stiffness terms in its equation of motion. Next, the wind speed is modeled as a spatio-temporal process, and accordingly new representations of spatio-temporal random processes are proposed based on tensor decompositions of the covariance kernel. These are applied to three problems: a heat equation, a vibration, and a readily available covariance model for wind speed. Finally, to assimilate available field measurement data on wind speed and to predict based on this assimilation, a new framework based on the tensor decompositions is proposed. The framework is successfully applied to a set of measured data on wind speed in Ireland, where the prediction based on simulation is found to be consistent with the observed data.

As características arquitetônicas e o desempenho estrutural de pontes suspensas, estaiadas ou pênseis, têm determinado a sua crescente utilização em obras de arte destinadas a vencer grandes vãos. Essa utilização crescente que ocorreu no mundo nas últimas décadas se repete agora nos últimos anos no país. Várias dessas obras estão em execução e em projeto. Um dos aspectos relevantes na análise estrutural das pontes suspensas é o de seu comportamento quando submetidas à ação do vento. Apresenta-se o sistema computacional ANA-PSp desenvolvido especialmente para o estudo do movimento de tabuleiros de pontes suspensas sujeitas a esforços aeroelásticos e aerodinâmicos. Esse sistema computacional formado por um conjunto de subsistemas, é elaborado para a análise aeroelástica de pontes suspensas sob a ação de vento e permite análises paramétricas extensas dos fenômenos de drapejamento (flutter) e de martelamento (buffeting). A discretização da estrutura é efetuada pelo método dos elementos finitos e a redução dos graus de liberdade é realizada por superposição modal com modos selecionados que melhor descrevem os movimentos do tabuleiro. Utiliza-se modelo matemático reduzido para a análise multimodal no domínio do tempo e da freqüência. A velocidade crítica ou velocidade de drapejamento é determinada por procedimento de autovalores complexos com a obtenção de freqüências e taxas de amortecimentos modais para várias velocidades do vento. Adicionalmente, o fenômeno do drapejamento é estudado por séries temporais de respostas de coordenadas generalizadas e de deslocamentos selecionados e por análise espectral dessas séries temporais, que permitem a verificação das características de vibração do tabuleiro da ponte no domínio da freqüência. O estudo do fenômeno de martelamento considera esforços aeroelásticos determinísticos e esforços aerodinâmicos estocásticos e apresentam-se resultados em espectros de potência de deslocamentos e em desvios padrão de deslocamentos ao longo do tabuleiro. Para validar o sistema ANA-PSp, apresentam-se estudos de caso para a ponte estaiada da Normandia, para a ponte pênsil colapsada de Tacoma Narrows e para a ponte estaiada projetada, mas não executada, sobre o Rio Tietê e localizada na extremidade do complexo viário Jacu-Pêssego. / The architectonic characteristics and the structural performance of suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridges have determined their growing use on large span bridges. This growing usage, which has occurred world-wide during the last decades, is now being repeated in Brazil during the last few years. Several such bridges are presently either undergoing construction or being designed. One of the outstanding aspects in the structural analysis of suspension bridges is their behavior under wind action. This paper presents the computer system ANA-PSp, specially developed for studying the movement of suspended bridge decks under aeroelastic and aerodynamic forces. This computer system is formed by a group of subsystems and is created for aeroelastic analysis of suspended bridges under wind action. It allows extended parametric analyses of the flutter and the buffeting phenomena. Structural discretization is done by the finite element method and the reduction of degrees of freedom is obtained by modal superposition of the selected modes which best describe the deck movements. A reduced mathematical model is used for the multimodal analysis in the time and frequency domains. Critical velocity or flutter velocity is determined by a procedure of complex eigenvalues which obtains frequencies and damping ratios for different wind speeds. Additionally, the flutter phenomenon is studied by temporal series of answers to generalized coordinate responses and of selected displacements by spectral analysis of such temporal series, which allow us to verify the characteristics of the vibrations of the bridge deck in the frequency domain. The study of the buffeting phenomenon considers deterministic aeroelastic and stochastic aerodynamic forces. The paper presents results in displacement power spectra and in the standard deviation of displacements along the deck. In order to validate system ANA-PSp, case studies are presented for the cable-stayed Ponte de Normandie in Le Havre (France), for the collapsed suspension bridge on Tacoma Narrows and for the cable-stayed bridge, already designed but not built, on Tietê River, located at one end of the highway complex Jacu-Pêssego (São Paulo, SP, Brazil).

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.