Sebastian Reymert

About

Keeping bridges open, despite wind conditions

There are currently no national guidelines for deciding how and when traffic should be regulated on bridges under strong crosswinds. Our goal is to provide a scientific basis on which to base a new set of informed guidelines. They shall ensure that vehicles can safely cross Norwegian road bridges for as much of the year as possible.

Postdoctoral Fellowship (Feb. 2023 - Present)

Our goal is to use GPS and inertial measurements to estimate the aerodynamic loads acting on a vehicle in the field (load identification in the time domain). The identification algorithm will be used to describe the relationship between aerodynamic loads and driver control input on real vehicles in their operating environment.

PhD (Apr. 2019 - Feb. 2023)

Wind effects on a vehicle-driver system (myself in a van) were investigated in the field on a number of roads and bridges in Norway. Some conclusions:

Typical features of the bridge geometry, including towers, support piers or anchor weights, create wakes of a critical dimension to driver-perceived stability. These look like inverse gusts and are often within a critical frequency range for drivers at the driving speed limit. Note that these geometries are found both above and below the bridge deck.
Substantial perturbations of the vehicle-driver system - in some cases leading to skidding - may also be caused by significant gusts carried by the oncoming wind. These are more likely to be found on certain segments of a bridge. Inhomogeneities across the span may be driven by local topographical differences or variations in girder section shape.
Coherent vortex structures have been observed on a large scale (of the order of 10 m) with a shedding frequency close to the test vehicle's natural roll frequency. This is a significant comfort issue at low driving speeds.