LONG-TERM MEASUREMENTS ON A CABLE-STAYED BRIDGE

Ender Ozkan*, Joseph Main* and Nicholas P. Jones**

* **
Graduate Research Assistant; Professor and Chair

Department of Civil Engineering

The Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218

ABSTRACT
A long-term ambient vibration survey on the Fred Hartman
Bridge in Texas is in progress primarily to monitor stay cable
vibration. Part of this project includes efforts to better under-
stand the overall wind performance and the modal character-
istics of the structure. A PC-based data acquisition system
was installed on the bridge to monitor deck and stay accel-
erations, wind speeds/directions and meteorological data
during the three-year test program. One of the primary tasks
in this process was the identification of structural frequencies
and mode shapes under a wide range of meteorological and
operating environments. The statistical distributions of the
modal frequencies of the structure have been obtained from
the locations of the peaks of the power spectra. In addition,
the frequencies, as well as mode shape estimates, have
been compared to a finite element (FE) model of the struc-
ture, showing reasonable agreement. This paper will sum-
marize findings from the efforts described above, as well as
describing relevant data from stay cable measurements.
INTRODUCTION
natural frequencies and mode shapes, of the structure and
carry out a comparative analysis of these values with results
of a finite element analysis and a short-term ambient vibra-
tions survey (AVS) that was carried out immediately follow-
ing the completion of the bridge. This paper also includes
examples of measurements and findings from stay cable
instrumentation.
DESCRIPTION OF THE BRIDGE
Opened to traffic in 1995, the Fred Hartman Bridge (Figure
1-a) connects the industrial towns of La Porte and Baytown
in Texas. It is a twin deck cable-stayed bridge with a center
span of 1250 ft. and two side spans of 482 ft. The decks are
composed of precast concrete slabs on steel girders and
each of which is 78 ft. wide, carrying four lanes of traffic. The
decks are carried by a total of 192 cables, arranged in four
inclined planes, and are connected at 50 ft. intervals. The
twin deck structure and the layout of the cables can be
clearly seen in Figure 1-b.

While very sophisticated techniques have been devised over

the years in the field of bridge aerodynamics, very few long-
term studies have been carried out in prototype structures to
evaluate the performance of these techniques. The type of
comprehensive instrumentation system needed as well as
long-term commitments to data analysis and reporting pose
great challenges associated with such long-term projects.
However, it is evident that the data obtained from these
measurements under various meteorological conditions will
provide important information about the principal mecha-
nisms of bridge aerodynamics as well as helping to improve
the current analytical prediction techniques.

Motivated by this idea, long-term full-scale field measure-

ments are being performed on the Fred Hartman Bridge.
Among the various objectives of this project are efforts to Figure 1-a. Fred Hartman Cable-Stayed Bridge
statistically determine the modal characteristics, such as

Figure 1-b. View of the bridge along its axis.
INSTRUMENTATION
One of the biggest challenges related with such long-term
monitoring projects is the need for robust and comprehen-
sive instrumentation systems. The bridge site is prone to
extreme climate conditions, such as extreme winds, rain,
thunderstorms and temperature changes throughout the test
program. Therefore, it is vital to have an instrumentation
system that maintains a high level of durability and accuracy.
The current instrumentation system used in this project con-
sists of the following components:
• 2 three-axis anemometers at the deck level
• Propeller-vane anemometer at the south tower top
• 19 two-axis accelerometers installed on stay cables (±4g
range)
• 8 displacement transducers installed on stays
• 8 strain gauges measuring strains on guide pipes
• 4 dampers on various cables
• 2 load cells installed on dampers
• 5 accelerometers, 4 one-axis and a two axis, installed on
the bridge deck (±4g range)
• 2 rain gauges (0.01’’ resolution)
• Temperature probe and barometer
• 4-pole Bessel filters set to 10 Hz (sampling frequency 40
Hz)
• Windows-based Pentium PC with data acquisition and
remote communication software.
All of the instruments are continuously monitored using a
remotely interrogated self-triggering system that records files
on the basis of exceedance of threshold motion and wind
levels. The recorded data files contain 5-minute time histo-
ries that are sampled at 40 Hz and are stored on high-
capacity removable disks for further processing. The condi-
(a)
Figure 2: RMS acceleration vs. wind speed for a) deck accelerometer at midspan and b) deck accelerometer at AS16.
tion of the system is checked manually via a modem connec-
tion from Johns Hopkins.
DATA ANALYSIS
Another significant challenge related with long-term monitor-
ing projects is the process of analyzing large quantities of
data. Approximately 10,000 trigger files have been recorded
during the three years of the test program, and more are
continuously being collected. Analyzing such a large number
of data files demands the extensive use of automated pro-
cedures. However, the use of automated procedures must
be carefully controlled to ensure that flawed or questionable
data are not blindly processed. The data analysis techniques
used in this project have been automated to the greatest
extent, with careful consideration for maintaining the integrity
and accuracy of the data.
The recorded files are initially processed to determine the
statistical features of each record. These features include
the mean, standard deviation and other higher moments of
the data as well as 1-minute average wind speeds, wind
directions, accelerations and displacements, all of which are
automatically added to a database. These statistical values
can be used, by means of queries created in the database,
to filter the data for flawed and/or unwanted data records.
Also, similar queries can be created to readily provide corre-
lations between various quantities. Examples of such corre-
lations can be seen in Figures 2-a and 2-b, where the root
mean square (RMS) accelerations of various deck acceler-
ometers are plotted vs. wind speed. These figures suggest
an increasing trend of RMS acceleration with increasing
wind speed. It should be noted that the points with large
RMS accelerations as well as large wind speeds in Figure 2-
b designate the data files that are associated with substantial
meteorological conditions. They have been validated by ex-
tensive analysis and further studies are currently underway
to analyze the mechanisms involved with these large ampli-
tude events.
The second stage of processing involves the statistical de-
termination of modal parameters by means of the peak am-
plitude method [3]. Each 5-minute time history is divided into
1-minute sections, which are processed to obtain the power
spectrum of deck and stay accelerometers (Figures 3-a and
3-b). The locations of peaks in these figures indicate the
modal frequencies whereas the amplitudes of these peaks
can be used in mode shape estimates. These values are
also added to a database to provide easy analysis of modal
characteristics of the bridge. The details of such analysis will
be discussed in the subsequent section. Figure 3-c shows a
closer view of a typical deck power spectrum curve in the [0-
1] Hz range, with circles designating the location of modal
frequencies.
(b)
 (a) (b)

Figure 3: Typical power spectrum graphs for a) the vertical deck acceleration at midspan and b) the in-plane
accelerations at a stay-cable.

Figure 3-c: A closer view of the power spectrum curve for deck at midspan in [0,1] Hz range.

VIBRATION MEASUREMENTS OF THE DECK

The modal characteristics of long-span bridges play an im-
portant role in various applications of bridge engineering.
Examples of these applications are aerodynamic analysis
and health monitoring of bridges, both of which use the mo-
dal characteristics as a basis of their analysis. Considering
that these applications are crucial in design and mainte-
nance of long-span bridges, it is important to better under-
stand the underlying characteristics of the modal parame-
ters. Motivated by this idea, a part of this project involves the
long-term full-scale measurements of deck vibrations for the
purposes of understanding the overall wind performance and
modal characteristics of the structure. Modal frequencies
and mode shapes are statistically determined and these
values are compared with values obtained from FE analysis
and a short-term AVS. For brevity, the results presented
herein will focus on the first 20 modes.
The spectral database, described in the previous section,
provides an easy tool for obtaining statistical properties of
modal frequencies and mode shapes. Figure 4 shows the
histogram of deck frequencies for modes up to 1 Hz that was
obtained using this database. The locations of peaks in this
histogram indicate the presence of modal frequencies. It is
evident from Figure 4 that the modal frequencies are distrib-
uted in specific ranges along the frequency axis. To under-
stand this phenomenon in detail, a closer view of histograms
for the first four modes is given in Figures 5-a and 5-b. It is
important to note that modes 1 and 2 (Figure 5-a) are first
bending modes with in-phase and out-of-phase motions of
the decks, respectively. Similarly, modes 3 and 4 are differ-
ently phased second bending modes. A distribution of 0.05
Hz in frequencies for these modes, corresponding to 17%
and 12% of the mean values respectively, can be seen in
these histograms. Studies to better understand the effects of
physical and meteorological conditions as well as processing
techniques on this variability are currently underway. How-
ever, this range of values suggests that the inherent variabil-
ity of modal frequencies should be carefully considered in
applications which use modal characteristics.

Figure 4: Histogram of deck modes.

While plotting histograms of modal frequencies is superior to
single-point estimates for understanding modal variability, it
lacks the resolution in finding the precise modal frequencies
for closely spaced modes. For instance, although two distinct
peaks can be observed for mode 1 and mode 2, only one
peak is observed for modes 3 and 4. This is due to the over-
lapping of respective histograms of modes 3 and 4, which
are closely spaced. An example of such overlapping is given
in Figure 5-c.

Table 1 shows the comparison of measured modal frequen-

cies with those obtained from a FE analysis and short-term
AVS for the first 20 modes. The description of the mode Figure 5-a: Histogram of frequencies for modes 1 and 2.
shapes are primarily associated with finite element model of
the bridge and are used as guidance while finding the meas-
ured mode shapes. The short-term AVS was carried out in a
three-day period immediately following the completion of the
bridge. It involves the determination of modal parameters on-
site using various multiple-instrument configurations. The FE
model is a 3-dimensional model containing 4186 joints, 5736
frame and 2936 shell elements.

Figure 5-b: Histogram of frequencies for modes 3 and

Figure 5-c: Hypothetical histogram illustrating the overlap

of peaks.

Long-Term Short-Term Phasing Description

Measured Fre- AVS Frequency FEM Frequency ( I :in-phase of the Mode
Mode quency (Hz) (Hz) (Hz) O: Out-of-phase) (FE)
1 0.290 0.290 0.286 I Vertical
2 0.299 0.305 0.291 O Vertical
3 0.375 0.376 0.366 I Vertical
4 - 0.388 0.377 O Vertical
5 0.432 0.400 0.410 - Lateral
6 - 0.409 0.426 - Lateral
7 0.564 0.574 0.556 I Vertical
8 - 0.596 0.562 O Vertical
9 - - 0.612 O Torsional
10 0.586 0.596 0.625 I Vertical
11 - - 0.634 O Vertical
12 0.665 0.669 0.658 I Vertical
13 - 0.684 0.659 - Torsional-Lateral
14 0.683 0.700 0.662 - Torsional-Bending
15 0.714 0.709 0.735 I Vertical
16 - - 0.736 O Vertical
17 - - 0.756 I Torsional
18 0.784 0.788 0.757 O Vertical
19 - - 0.817 I Torsional
20 0.924 - 0.856 I Vertical

TABLE 1: Comparison of measured deck modes with FE analysis and short-term AVS.
 Mode-1: 0.286 Hz Mode-3: 0.366 Hz
Mode-1: 0.290 Hz Mode-3: 0.375 Hz
Figure 6: Comparison of the first three in-phase vertical deck mode shapes obtained from FEM analysis
and long-term measurements.
In general, good agreement of modal frequencies is ob-
served between the measurements and the FE analysis. As
discussed previously, statistical approach used in the long-
term measurements is unable to pinpoint distinct frequencies
for very closely spaced modes. This is also true for esti-
mates made by the short-term AVS for higher modes; the
closely spaced modes are identified only by a single fre-
quency value for most of the modes beyond the 15 th mode.
In the long-term measurements, the mode shapes are also
found using a statistical approach that is similar to the case
of modal frequencies. Using queries created in the spectral
database, the amplitudes of power spectrum curves for each
mode can be readily found, which are used to plot the re-
spective mode shapes. Figure 6 shows the comparison of
computed vertical mode shapes with the long-term meas-
urement results. All the values are normalized to have a
maximum value of unity.
STAY CABLE VIBRATION MEASUREMENTS
The stay cables of the Fred Hartman Bridge have frequently
exhibited problematic large-amplitude vibrations during con-
ditions of wind and rain. This type of vibration problem has
been observed on numerous cable-stayed bridges around
the world, and vibration suppression has become a signifi-
cant consideration in cable-stayed bridge design and for
retrofit of existing structures. A primary objective of the in-
strumentation efforts on this bridge was to obtain measure-
ments of these large-amplitude vibrations at full-scale in or-
der to develop a better understanding of the vibration char-
acteristics and the underlying excitation mechanisms. Nu-
merous events of large-amplitude vibration were recorded
before the installation of a vibration mitigation system, and
this paper presents statistics generated from a preliminary
analysis of these records of unrestrained vibration. Although
19 stay cables were instrumented, for brevity this paper will
focus on data from one specific stay labeled AS9, with a
length of 285 feet and a fundamental frequency of 1.25 Hz.
Mode-7: 0.556 Hz
Mode-7: 0.564 Hz
As a preliminary analysis of the collected data, statistics
were routinely computed for each channel in every record
and stored in a relational database to allow for easy analysis
of correlations between the various statistical quantities us-
ing queries. Observations of the vibration characteristics and
their correlation with wind speed, wind direction, and rainfall
have been presented using the statistics in this database
(Main and Jones 1999). Figure 7 shows a resulting plot of
in-plane vibration amplitude (1-minute RMS acceleration) vs.
wind speed (1-minute mean). The bulk of the large-
amplitude responses occur for wind speeds between 10 and
28 mph; the precise limits vary from stay to stay. A general
trend of increasing vibration amplitude with wind speed is
evident. Figure 8 shows a plot of in-plane RMS acceleration
vs. mean wind direction. Most of the large-amplitude re-
sponses occur over a fairly narrow range of wind direction,
between 25 to 70 degrees. A wind direction of zero degrees
corresponds to wind from the north, and 90 degrees corre-
sponds to wind from the east; Stay AS9 inclines to the north,
and thus it is evident that most of the large amplitude re-
sponses occur for wind directions where the cable declines
in the direction of the wind. The largest amplitude vibrations
were associated with rainfall.
A second round of analysis of the data sets focused on the
spectral content of the vibrations for selected stays. It was
observed that the highest responses occurred mostly in the
lower modes and seemed to “lock on” to a specific mode of
vibration over a wide range of wind speed (Main and Jones
2000). Figure 9 is a plot of vibration amplitude (5-minute
RMS acceleration) versus wind speed (5-minute mean), with
different symbols to indicate the dominant mode. The domi-
nant mode was identified from the highest peak of the accel-
eration PSD, scaled to account for the accelerometer loca-
tion. It is evident that in almost all of the large-amplitude
responses over a wide range of wind speeds, mode 2 is the
dominant mode. Other stays also exhibit preferential re-
sponses in a specific mode, although the preferred mode is
different for different stays, and some stays exhibit more
than one preferred mode.

Figure 7. Vibration amplitude vs. wind speed.
Figure 8. Vibration amplitude vs. wind direction.
Figure 9. Vibration amplitude vs. wind speed
with dominant mode indicated by symbol.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The preceding paper presents an overview of long-term ef-
forts to monitor a cable-stayed bridge for a variety of pur-
poses, including understanding the modal characteristics
under ambient wind conditions. Using data files collected
during various meteorological conditions, natural frequencies
and mode shapes of the deck are found using an automated
data analysis procedure. It was observed that the modal
frequencies and mode shapes were distributed over ranges
and thus contained a degree of uncertainty. It is important
that this uncertainty be carefully considered in applications
such as health monitoring where the modal characteristics
form the basis of analysis.
A comparative analysis between the measured long-term
results with those of AVS and FE analysis has been made.
The statistical approach provides an understanding of varia-
tions in modal frequencies, while it lacks the accuracy in
estimating the precise location of frequencies for very closely
spaced modes, which is due to overlapping of relative con-
tributions from the closely spaced modes. In general, the
mean values of the measured frequencies and mode shapes
were observed to agree well with the AVS measurements
and predicted values found from a FE analysis.
Numerous events of large-amplitude stay-cable vibration
have been recorded, and observations of the vibration char-
acteristics are presented from a preliminary analysis of the
data. The bulk of the large-amplitude vibrations occur over a
fairly narrow range of wind direction, and a trend of increas-
ing amplitude with wind speed is evident. The largest ampli-
tude events are associated with rainfall, and these vibrations
seem to “lock on” to a specific mode of vibration over a wide
range of wind speeds.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would greatly acknowledge the contributions
from John C. Wilson of McMaster University, Canada who
developed the first version of the finite element model used
herein.
The authors would also like to acknowledge Texas Depart-
ment of Transportation, National Science Foundation and
the Department of Civil Engineering at Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity for the support of this work.
REFERENCES
[1] Main, J.A. and Jones, N.P., Full-Scale Measurements of
Cable Vibration, Proc. 10th International Conference on
Wind Engineering, pp. 963-970,1999.
[2] Main, J.A. and Jones, N.P., A Comparison of Full-Scale
Measurements of Stay Cable Vibration, Proceedings Struc-
tures Congress 2000 - ASCE, Philadelphia, May 2000.
[3] Jones, N.P. and Thompson, J.M., Ambient Vibration
Survey: Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Proceedings of Structures
Congress, ASCE, 1993.