Vortex Streets

Vortices are unloved by all bridge builders.

  • They produce vibrations
  • Hinder smaller boats
  • Modify the river bed

A customer from Austria came with plans for a new 6-lane highway bridge over the Danube River.

We tackled the problem with Telemac-3D and Telemac-AD. Look at the first pictures: The first picture shows the final, calibrated model.

Vorticity at Voest Bridge Piers

But before the prognoses comes the calibration:

Calibrated against the original Karman experiments

The key to success is a good advection scheme! The key to avoid eddies behind the bridge is a fin before the bridge! Read more in our paper, linked in the section below.

Karman Vortex at Voest Bridges: The experience of the project added some new slides to our user training – chapter calibration.

Read More:

KESSLER, C. MERKEL, U. 2016. Vortex streets behind bridge piers -Studies with Telemac-2D/3D & Telemac-AD. In: Proceedings of the XXIIIrd TELEMAC-MASCARET User Conference 2016, Paris, France

This Topic is also part of the Telemac-AD examples: