Influence of Cable Dampers on Cable-Stayed Bridges

Cable-stayed bridges have seen a wider application in recent years, with many having longer and longer spans. Modern cable-stayed bridges are using numerous cables to support the stiffing girders. Many cable dampers are installed to mitigate cable vibration. This paper focuses the attention on the effect of cable damper on the dynamic characteristics of the whole cable-stayed bridge, especially the modal damping. A practical model comprised of the cable, girder, and damper is developed to analyze the relationship between system modal damping and the performance of cable damper with complex mode method. A test model with cable, girder and damper was made to verify the theoretical results. A finite element model of a simplified cable-stayed bridge based on test model is adopted to assess the effects of cable dampers on the anti-seismic performance and wind-resistant behavior of the cable-stayed bridge. The results show that the cable dampers of cable-stayed bridge can increase the modal damping of the whole bridge.