Wind Tunnel Experiments On Bridge Stays Cables Protection Tubes In Dry Galloping Conditions: Processing Method For Bi-Stable Phenomenon

Surface irregularity is one of the parameters that have not been deeply examined on stay cables of cable-stayed bridges. This paper focuses on wind tunnel tests on original High Density Polyethylene cable covers, in a range of Reynolds numbers from the sub-critical regime to the critical one, corresponding to values ranging from Re = 9.6x104 to Re = 3.3x105. The experiment consists in measurement of parietal pressures on cable covers in order to investigate the effect of surface irregularity on the mechanism of dry galloping excitation. Previous studies ([1], [3] and [4]) reported that dry galloping of cables with a circular cross section is linked to the appearance of a negative pressure bubble, on one side of the circular cylinder at the critical Reynolds number range, leading locally to a rapid drop in the drag coefficient and the appearance of a no negligible lift force. But such a steady change in local lift force does not generate an alternate excitation on a whole cable. The question of the spatial correlation of this “one bubble “ regime along a cable in real conditions and the capability of this lift force to be varied with time are still not resolved. The present paper aims at showing one first exploration of the spatial and temporal correlation of the pressure pattern along the HDPE tube with respect to the natural circularity defect. The Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) was used to characterize the bi-stability phenomenon occurring at critical Reynolds number regime.