Description
In this research, the authors performed unsteady numerical simulations of a moving Ahmed body under a freeway overpass at different distances from the bridge columns in order to evaluate transient wind shear and the wind load on these columns. Results have shown that when the vehicle is at 0.75W distance from the bridge columns, an unsteady wind speed of up to 24 m/s is observed at the columns with a pressure coefficient difference of 0.9. Here W is the width of the vehicle. These results indicate with an appropriate system for harnessing these wind energy potentials, significant renewable electric power could be generated with zero carbon footprint.
Publication Date
1-2021
Publication Type
Report
Topic
Transportation Engineering
Digital Object Identifier
10.31979/mti.2020.1933
MTI Project
1933
Mineta Transportation Institute URL
https://transweb.sjsu.edu/research/1933-Transient-Wind-Shear-Passing-Vehicles
Keywords
Vehicle aerodynamics, Vorticity, Wind load, Ahmed body, Wind shear
Disciplines
Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics | Transportation
Recommended Citation
Hamid Rahai and Assma Begum. "Numerical Investigations of Transient Wind Shear from Passing Vehicles Near a Road Structure (Part I: Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes Simulations)" Mineta Transportation Institute (2021). https://doi.org/10.31979/mti.2020.1933
Research Brief
