São Paulo – The Institute for Technological Research (IPT) should deliver later this month the result of the load effect of winds on a viaduct to be built in Constantine, Algeria. The IPT was hired by construction company Andrade Gutierrez, responsible for the works, and the tests were developed in the institution’s wind tunnel, in the city of São Paulo, in August. The IPT operates within the University of São Paulo (USP) and belongs to the Development Secretariat of the State of São Paulo.
According to IPT researcher Antonio Luiz Pacífico, the institution’s wind tunnel is the largest in Latin America and this was the first test it has developed for a project abroad. The institute’s Centre for Fluid Metrology was responsible for the test. The IPT has already developed another service for the Algerians, but through the Centre for Infrastructure Construction Technology, which evaluated, in the Arab country, the conditions of a bridge, Sidi Rached, which is already in operation. That took place in 2008, also in Constantine.
What the IPT did, in the case of the viaduct in Constantine, was a test to see how it behaves in the wind. According to Pacífico, as it is dealing with the atmosphere, with unpredictable winds, it is important not to use just numeric tests. The IPT did a section test – on part of the bridge – in a reduced scale. The results will be transferred to the construction company, which will modify them to the normal scale. Despite not having a final report, Pacífico said that the bridge was very well designed.
The study, according to the IPT researcher, took two weeks and was developed in partnership with the Laboratory for Structural Systems, responsible for conception, construction and instrumentation of the reduced model of the bridge. The IPT wind tunnel is capable of testing winds of up to 25 meters per second, which corresponds to 90 kilometres per hour. According to Pacífico, despite the tunnel being used mainly for internal tests, it is also interesting for the IPT to develop studies for projects abroad.
Constantine Viaduct will be 800 metres long and the central span is 245 metres. It will be a suspension bridge, will have eight pillars, a floor at a height of 80 metres, supported by cables sustained on 60-metre-tall pillars. The project is by the Danish Cowi and includes Andrade Gutierrez, in construction, and Italian consultancy company Studio de Miranda Association, in project control and construction engineering.
*Translated by Mark Ament
