Active aerodynamic bidirectional control of structures I: modeling and experiments

A new aerodynamic method for controlling bidirectional wind-induced motion of bluff bodies is proposed. A generic bluff body model is suggested to develop a mathematical description of the control system dynamics. The motion in the along-wind direction is assumed to be generated by incident turbulence, while vortex-induced resonant vibrations are assumed for the across-wind direction. The control system equations are derived and the closed-loop algorithms are presented. Experiments conducted to verify the basic assumptions and to study the basic fluid dynamical features of the new device are also reported.