Computational investigation on the unsteady pressures on two towers at close distance

The aerodynamic behaviour of a pair of tall towers of a lift bridge placed at close distance have been investigated through wind tunnel tests. Aerodynamic loads, equivalent static pressure distributions and interference effects have been studied through proper orthogonal decomposition in order to better understand the wind-excitation mechanisms. Dominant coherent pressure structures have been extracted through covariance proper transformation for the different fluctuating load components, thus simplifying the unsteady wind load characterization and reducing the storage of data.