Flutter

Flutter is an aeroelastic phenomenon that occurs in flexible bodies with relatively flat shapes, such as airplane wings and bridge decks. It involves oscillations with amplitudes that grow in time and can result in catastrophic structural failure. In its detail, flutter in practically all cases involves nonlinear aerodynamics. It is characteristic of flutter as a typical self‐excited oscillation that, by means of its deflections and their time derivatives, a structural system taps off energy from the wind flow. This chapter considers two‐dimensional (2‐D) bridge deck behavior in smooth flow and briefly reviews the expression for the aerodynamic lift and moment acting on airfoils. It introduces the aerodynamic lift, drag and moment acting on bridge decks. The chapter reviews the solution of the flutter equations for bridges and discusses the bridge response to turbulent wind in the presence of aeroelastic effects.