Modeling wind loads on long-span bridges

Inthispaper,acriticalreviewonmodelingofwindloadsonlong- span bridges is traced. Starting from the theoretical background associated to the classical thin airfoil model and from a generalized quasi-steady wind-loading de- scription, a unified consistent approach is proposed. The general frameworks of both frequency-domain and time-domain loading models are exploited, generalizing available approaches and eliminating commonly diffused inconsistencies, in order to preserve the main formal scheme of thin-airfoil-based classical results. The strong duality between time-domain and frequency-domain descriptions is clearly highlighted for both motion-related (aerolastic) and buffeting loads. Finally, in the same unified context, a brief overview of the main open topics and of possible effective strategies to account for some unconventional effects (e.g., related to flow three-dimensionality and nonlinear aerodynamics) is drawn.