Lateral Vibration on a Pedestrian Cable-Stayed Bridge

It was observed that the girder and the stay cables vibrated laterally on a pedestrian cable-stayed bridge, when a large number of people crossed the bridge. This paper introduces how the engineers tackled this dynamic problem. Field measurements were carried out to investigate the mechanism of this vibration, finding out that the girder vibrated laterally. Vibration tests and numerical simulations were also conducted, suggesting that lateral dynamic forces induced by pedestrians were most likely to cause this vibration. Tuned liquid dampers were installed inside the box girder, which were found to be useful in decreasing the vibration level. The performance of the dampers ten years after the installation is also reported.