Wind Load

This Load Type calculates the effective forces acting on the structure due to wind impact. These forces are determined by using the wind direction, the wind speed and aerodynamic shape coefficients dependent on the cross-section shape and the "angle of flow". These coefficients are usually determined in wind tunnel tests and given in form of diagrams describing the angle-of-flow dependency of the drag, lift, and pitch coefficients for a special cross-section shape. The static part of the acting forces is herein calculated as well as the power spectrum characterizing the dynamic part. In addition, RM Bridge also offers a CFD module as additional function for calculating the required coefficients.

Note: This Load Type is usually only used for highly sophisticated wind dynamics analyses, because no shape coefficients are mostly available for standard cases due to missing wind tunnel tests. The wind loads are in these cases commonly modeled by standard distributed loads as described in chap. UDL.

Usage and correct application of this Load Type "Wind Load" are described in detail in the User Guide.

The following special Types are available for describing the wind loading:

Mean wind load (macro)	WINDM
Mean wind load with gust factor	WINDG
Mean drag for longitudinal wind component	DRAGML
Mean drag	DRAGM
Mean lift	LIFTM
Mean pitch	PITCHM