Use of Shape Memory Alloys damper device to mitigate vibration amplitudes of bridge cables

Abstract Most of civil engineering cable structures are subjected to potential damages mainly due to dynamic oscillations induced by wind, rain or traffic. If vibration amplitudes of bridge cables are too high, it may cause fatigue damages. Recently, research had been conducted dealing with the use of damping devices in order to reduce vibration amplitudes of cables. In this paper, thin Ni–Ti (Nickel–Titanium) Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wires were used as damping devices. The aim of this work is to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the efficiency of Ni–Ti dampers to reduce the vibration amplitudes of civil engineering cables. For a practical control of the SMA in damping for stayed cables, several measurements were carried out in this work, on a realistic full scale cable sample in Ifsttar (Nantes – France) laboratory facility. The experimental observations were done inducing quite high oscillations in the middle of the cable without any damper device or with a SMA damper device made by two thin NiTi parallel wires. The intrinsic damping coefficient in the free cable was extremely low. The reduction of cable oscillation amplitudes was about 25% in 1 min. The effects of the damper are investigated in this study, outlining the drastic reduction of the oscillation amplitudes all along the cable in less than 10 s. Other tests were performed placing the source of oscillations or the damper at different positions along the cable and the results are observed and compared. Finite element simulations have been carried out using Marc/Mentat finite element code with good agreement between experiment and simulation. The finite element tools enable to study quantitatively the effectiveness of the damper at several points of the cable.

[1]  Vicenç Torra,et al.  SMA in Mitigation of Extreme Loads in Civil Engineering: Damping Actions in Stayed Cables , 2011 .

[2]  Lamine Dieng,et al.  Fretting-fatigue behaviour of bridge engineering cables in a solution of sodium chloride , 2009 .

[3]  V. Torra,et al.  Built in dampers for family homes via SMA: An ANSYS computation scheme based on mesoscopic and microscopic experimental analyses , 2007 .

[4]  Hiromichi Shirato,et al.  Rain-wind induced vibration of cables of cable-stayed bridges , 1992 .

[5]  Hiromichi Shirato,et al.  Aerodynamic behavior of inclined circular cylinders-cable aerodynamics , 1990 .

[6]  Guillem Carreras,et al.  Experimental study of damping in civil engineering structures using smart materials (NiTi - SMA): application to stayed cables for bridges , 2010 .

[7]  Randall W. Poston.  CABLE-STAY CONUNDRUM , 1998 .

[8]  C. Auguet,et al.  Built in dampers for stayed cables in bridges via SMA. The SMARTeR-ESF project: A mesoscopic and macroscopic experimental analysis with numerical simulations , 2013 .

[9]  Søren Nielsen,et al.  Optimal Damping of Stays in Cable-Stayed Bridges for In-Plane Vibrations , 2002 .

[10]  Tomomi Yagi,et al.  Vortex-induced cable vibration of cable-stayed bridges at high reduced wind velocity , 2001 .

[11]  Hartmut Janocha,et al.  Adaptronics and Smart Structures: Basics, Materials, Design, and Applications , 2007 .

[12]  Hiromichi Shirato,et al.  Response characteristics of rain-wind induced vibration of stay-cables of cable-stayed bridges , 1995 .

[13]  Lamine Dieng,et al.  Influence of an aqueous environment on the fretting behaviour of steel wires used in civil engineering cables , 2011 .

[14]  Nicholas P. Jones,et al.  Evaluation of Viscous Dampers for Stay-Cable Vibration Mitigation , 2001 .

[15]  P. D. McFadden,et al.  A review of time-frequency methods for structural vibration analysis , 2003 .

[16]  E. Caetano.  Cable Vibrations in Cable-Stayed Bridges , 2007 .

[17]  S. Calloch,et al.  A phenomenological model for pseudoelasticity of shape memory alloys under multiaxial proportional and nonproportional loadings , 2004 .

[18]  Sylvain Calloch,et al.  A 3D super-elastic model for shape memory alloys taking into account progressive strain under cyclic loadings , 2009 .

[19]  Lamine Dieng,et al.  Mécanismes de dégradation et moyens de protection des câbles du génie civil: Exemple des câbles de haubanage , 2009 .

[20]  Nathan M. Newmark,et al.  A Method of Computation for Structural Dynamics , 1959 .

[21]  Yi-Qing Ni,et al.  Optimal design of viscous dampers for multi-mode vibration control of bridge cables , 2005 .

[22]  Nicholas P. Jones,et al.  Interpretation of field observations of wind- and rain-wind-induced stay cable vibrations , 2010 .

[23]  Ferdinando Auricchio,et al.  Performance evaluation of shape-memory-alloy superelastic behavior to control a stay cable in cable-stayed bridges , 2011 .