Design, Implementation and Measurement of Cable Dampers for Large Cable-stayed Bridges

Installing cable dampers is a most common used countermeasure for suppressing cable vibration of large span cable-stayed bridges induced by wind. The obtainable damping of cable damper is reduced as the cable length increases, due to the height limitation of damper position. Therefore, the damping efficiency of cable damper needs to be improved for longer cables to achieve the required damping. This paper reported the investigations on the design, implementation and measurement of cable dampers for large cable-stayed bridges. Experimental studies were carried out to evaluate the damper performance, and the factors affecting the damper efficiency were investigated. The optimal design of damper was proposed using nonlinear design theories. A simple design approach using equivalent linear damper with efficiency factor was introduced for engineering practice. The performance of the dampers was evaluated based on the site measurement at a large span cable- stayed bridge.