Vortex-induced vibration control of a streamline box girder using the wake perturbation of horizontal axis micro-wind turbines

The horizontal axis micro-wind turbine (HAMWT), a wind energy harvesting device, always engenders the streamwise component vorticity, which can potentially be applied to perform 3-D spanwise-varying control. As vortex shedding behind a bluff body is always efficiently suppressed via a 3-D spanwise-varying method, the HAMWT can be used to efficiently suppress the vortex-induced vibration (VIV). The control effect on mitigating the VIV of a streamline box girder is investigated through wind tunnel tests with HAMWTs installed in the spanwise direction. The results show that spanwise-distributed HAMWTs have significant control effects in suppressing the vortex-induced response with a symmetrical arrangement. As the spanwise distance and the height of the HAMWT decrease, the control effects improve. When the spanwise distance L < 3H and the height h < 0.3H (where H is the bridge deck height), the vortex-induced vibration is almost completely suppressed. Moreover, HAMWTs with a staggered arrangement are more effective than those with a symmetrical arrangement, and ultimately suppress the VIV response at different spanwise distances (at least at L = 1H–6H). Furthermore, wake analysis results indicate that wind turbines suppress vortex shedding, and the vortex-induced resonance is significantly weakened.