Numerical simulation of adhesion of sea-salt particles on bridge girders

Abstract

It is important to estimate corrosion environment of steel bridges for a proper corrosion prevention and maintenance program. The governing factors of corrosion are temperature, humidity and various dusts on the surfaces. Among them, the adhered sea-salt particulate matter (SSPM) is most important and therefore airborne SSPM near a bridge site must be considered in its design. To prevent degradation of protective paint, removal of adhered SSPM by wash out has been tried in some bridges. To this end, it is better to know the adhesion behaviour of SSPM to bridge girders. The objective of this manuscript is to pursue numerical method to simulate the adhesion behaviour of salt particles oriented from sea surface. Specifically, two scale approach is proposed. Mesoscale meteorological analysis and Lagrangian type two phase flow analysis are used in global and local analyses respectively. The comparisons between the numerical and observed results showed that the numerical analysis can reproduce essential behaviours of airborne SSPM.

Keywords::

• maintenance
• steel bridges
• corrosion
• protection

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by Grant in Aid of MLIT of Japanese government and by Grant in Aid of JSPS. The authors also acknowledge the cooperation of Prof. K. Nagata of Nagoya Institute of Technology in the preparation of this manuscript.

Notes

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