Aerodynamic characteristics of closely and rigidly connected cables for cable-stayed bridges

The aeroelastic instability of cables for cable-stayed bridges has become a serious problem with extension of span length. From the viewpoint of reduction of cost for construction and maintenance of cables, multiple cables have been adopted for cable-stayed bridges. The multiple cables, however, have aeroelastic instability of wake-galloping. Therefore, it is required to develop a method for suppressing wake-galloping of multiple cables. The authors proposed the solution for this problem on the basis not of structural method with damper system, but of aeroelastic method based on the mechanism of wake-galloping. The proposed method is to connect two cables with each other and to place two cables in close and rigid arrangement. As a result, the cables are protected from a generation of wake-galloping induced by the wake of upstream cable.