Nordic Steel Construction Conference "95 Damping of Stay Cable in Cable Stayed Bridge Design Jorgen Strom, Jens Lillesre Mortensen, Christian Riis Petersen ISC A/S Consulting Engineers Copenhagen, Denmark Summary Cable vibrations cannot be predicted accurately enough by theoretical calculations. It is therefore customary to provide facilities, which can ease the installation of dampers, if and when problems are encountered in the finished bridge. The solutions have to be aesthetically satisfactory. Based on a systematic survey of the newest systems already installed at bridges, an overview of the various means for damping will be classified according to physical principles and modes of operation ‘The following systems with reference projects will be presented and evaluated: - _Stiffening ropes and/or mechanical connections have been frequently used in cable- stayed bridges. Oil dampers have been installed in several bridges. An oil damper is effective for suppressing cable vibrations with lower modes. + Aerodynamic contro! means, which could be addition of surface roughness on cables for preventing vortex excitation or introducing axial protuberances or V-stripes for wind-rain induced vibrations. Finally possible new developments, like for instance tuned mass dampers, for damping of stay cable vibrations will be discussed Introduction Vibrations of cables associated with long-span cable-stayed bridges are discussed, and aerodynamic and mechanical means to illiminate or reduce vibrations are presented. Vibrations in cable stayed bridges are mainly caused by two phenomena: = Cable support motion from either the bridge-girder or the pylon caused by dynamic load at the bridge itself mainly coming from heavy vehicles. - Aerodynamic actions on the cable itself from wind, a combination of wind and rain or a combination of wind and ice. 701Especially in the last case it is very difficult to predict these phenomena precisely by means of theoretical calculations. Therefore it is necessary in the design of cable stayed bridges to provide possibilities for an easy installation of adequate damping equipment, if unintentional vibrations should arise in the finished bridge. In Jong-span cable-stayed bridges the longest cable may be up to 700 meters. Since the damping of the cable stay is very low (an order of 0,005 - 0.01) it is impossible to prevent vibration of the stay-cable. Violent oscillation of the long cable stays can cause premature fatigue failures at the anchor points of the cables. The flexural stresses of the relatively rigid joints near the anchor points can be of the same order of magnitude as the live load induced axial stresses or sometimes even larger. In order to describe the dynamic characteristics of the cables, especially the coupling between the cables and the other structural parts it is necessary to develope a comprehensive model in which the cables are taken into consideration as multiple degrees of freedom systems. Potential Causes of Vibrations Different physical factors can affect vibrations of a cable stayed bridge and especially the stay cables. The physical factors that cause vibrations are mai - Cable/main span interacti The interaction between the cables and the main span (also called parasitic vibrations) is caused by the coupled interaction between these two elements. Movement can be caused by traffic (mostly vertical direction) or wind (both vertical and horizontal). The phenomena can only be avoided completely by ensuring that the cable and bridge deck frequencies are widely spaced. The coupled interaction is very complex to describe because the problem is non-linear. ‘These non-linearities can be due to: - The sag effect (ie. changes in the geometry of the cable when tension changes). Interaction of the pylons. ~ Changes of the whole bridge geometry due to the large deflections. 2 Traffic For reinforced concrete bridges, traffic-induced vibrations are rarely a serious problem because the ratio of live load to dead load of the bridge superstructure is small. With increased span length, the stiffening girder is getting shallower and furthermore with the use of high strength materials, vibrations due to traffic are playing an important role [2]. Deck surface roughness can have a strong effect on magnifying traffic induced vibrations. 702jl dampers or tuned mass dampers can be connected to the bridge girder to reduce vibrations Wind/Vortex_Sheddin; ‘The frequency of excitating forces from vortex shedding is given by: where d = the diameter of the cylinder vy = The velocity of the wind § = Strouhal number, The Strouhal Number of a circular section like the cable depends on the Reynolds Number. For a stationary cylinder the Strouhal number increases from 0.18 to 0.3 in the critical region and has an average value of 0.3 in the post critical region. For oscilliating cylinders the maximum amplitude will occur for a higher wind speed than V = S x f, x d, where f, is the natural frequency of the cylinder. This is due to the following two causes: 1) For a cylinder oscilliating with the amplitude, a, the peak to peak outer projection is (d + 2a). Vortex shedding from the outer positions corresponds to a windspeed increased by the factor (d + 2a)/d assuming a constant Strouhal number. 2) The vortex shedding is adapted to the natural frequency of the cylinder: The oscillating cylinder is moving away from the side at which an eddy shall be released, this movement prevents the release of the eddy until the outer position is reached. By this the vortex shedding frequency will remain the same as the natural frequency of the cylinder even for an increase in wind speed. In the sub-critical region where the vibration is usually observed S is approximately 0.18 and the critical wind speed V,, can be estimated as V,, = 5.5 f, d. Fig. 1 Vortex development 703Protuberances Parallel to the A On smooth cables raindrops do not run around the circumference of a cable. Because of the diagonal wind force they form upper and lower rivulets along its length, Wind tunnel tests have reported that an existence of water rivulet on the top surface is always observed in case of this type of vibration. Existence of turbulence in the wind will reduce the response caused by the wind-rain induced vibration, Fig. 2 Picture of double helix protuberances for improving the stay cable surface (Pont de Normandie). Wind tunnel tests have indicated that attaching protuberances parallel to the cable axis or V-striped grooves on the PE sheating is effective in controlling this type of vibra- tion, ‘Such a cable with protuberances parallel to the cable axis was developed for use in the Higashi-Kobe Bridge in Japan. ‘On the Pont de Normandie in France double helical protuberances on the PE sheating has been used on the stay cables in order to prevent rain-wind induced vibration. ‘Wind tunnel tests have proved this solution to be satisfactory. It should be mentioned that protuberances - and to some extent grooves - increase the drag force on the stay cables. Stiffening Ropes. Stiffening ropes reduce the effective vibration length of the stay cables. The wire-con- necting method is to let other cables participate in the absorption of the vibration energy of one cable, increase equivalent mass, improve damping characteristics and. decrease the amplitude of the vibratign ,‘The Scruton Number: where m = mass per unit length logarithmic decrement air density is used to evaluate the risk of violent vibrations due to vortex shedding. Wind tunnel tests have shown that the response can be reduced to an acceptable level when the Scruton Number S, exceeds 20. B Wind-Rain Induced ion The wind-rain induced vibarations are a kind of aerodynamic instability of vibration recently observed in stay cables with PE sheating. This type of vibrations are caused by the combined influence of rain and strong wind. It is reported that these vibrations have been observed in power transmission lines in the past. A precise physical explanation of the phenomenon is, however, not yet available which makes it difficult to predict this type of vibrations. - Galk wake. Galloping of single cables is normally disregarded. Two cables close together near another can oscillate as a result of the wind shear in the wake of the upwind cable. This depends on spacing of cables and any coupling between them. The pylons can have a similar effect depending on geometry. In case of icing that typically builds up asymmetrically the cables will be susceptible to galloping. Systems for Damping of Stay Vibrations ‘As mentioned in the introduction the logaritmic decrement of the cable is low. It is interesting to note that measurements of the internal damping of cables before and after grouting shows that the damping is decreased to the half after grouting. Due to the low damping capacity different means must be used to prevent oscilliation from galloping. rain/wind vibration, wind/vortex shedding etc. 705TIFFENING Fig. 3 Ilustration of stiffening ropes. Examples of the use of stiffening ropes are: ‘The Faroe Bridge (Denmark), Hitsuishijima Bridge and Iwakurojima Bridge (Japan) For the Normandie Bridge, according to ref. [3], the main vibration period for vertical bending would have been of the same magnitude as the vibration period of the longer cables, 4,5 s, compared to about 4,0 s. In this situation, it was feared that cable vibrations would be induced by the deck movements. Interconnecting ropes were designed to totally change the vibration periods of cables, at least in the cable plane, reducing them to 1,25 s and less. Qil Dampers The principle of oil dampers rely on the use of the viscoelastic effect. Oil dampers or viscoelastic dampers have been used widely for decades. Oil dampers are also relative- ly simple and have been applied in various structural members. The oil dampers may either be placed near the pylon anchorage or adjacent to the bridge deck. Oil dampers are effective in surpressing oscillations from dynamic loads on the bridge girders such as heavy traffic. 706Fig. 4 Oil damper installed on Pont de Normandie Tuned Mass Dampers A tuned mass damper (TMD) is a sprung mass and a dash pot system. A properly designed TMD, when attached to a structure, significantly reduces its dynamic response near resonance. Recently large-size TMD’s have been used for civil engineering structures such as tall buildings, towers and bridges, but they may be used on stay cables as well. In design of powertransmission lines a special TMD - the Stockbridge damper - has shown to be very effective. Theoretical studies have shown nonlinear coupling between the damper and the powerline. In critical regions of frequencies the ampli- tudes of the Stockbridge damper is large which means that most of the mechanical energy in the system is concentrated to the damper. This phenomenon will reduce the vibrations of the powertransmission lines [4]. 707J { | ‘BL se : ~ \ SPRING Fig. 5 Possible concept for a TMD used on a stay cable. N The stay cable is a continuous system where the TMD's are applied at discrete points. The use of more than one TMD on each cable will increase the effectiveness of the damping effect. In this case the TMD's will be smaller. Conclusion Wind, rain and traffic are loads that contain a broad spectrum of excitation frequencies. Since the structural damping of the bridge structure is very low, it is of great importance to counteract forced vibrations from these types of loads. ‘The proposed methods to reduce vibrations are: 1. Aerodynamic precautions, which can be either axial protuberances parallel to the cable axis, V-striped grooves on the PE sheating or helical wires around the stay cable. 2. Stiffening ropes or flexible connections between the cables in order to change the eigenfrequency or provide damping of the stay cable. 3. Oil dampers at the cable anchorages. 4. Tuned mass dampers. This solution is to our knowledge not presently used for damping of stay cables. Further investigations and design work is required in order to evaluate the feasibility of such TMD's, Based on the experiences from overhead power transmission lines it seems to be an interesting topic for research. References 1, Instability issues in extremely long-span steel cable-stayed bridges M. Nagai and Y. Fujino Strait Crossings, Krokeborg (ed.) ISBN 9054103884 pp. 271-276 2. Importance of Cable Vibration in Dynamics of Cable-Stayed Bridges 708By Ahmed M. Abdel-Ghaffer and Magdi A. Khalifa Journal of Engineering Mechanics pp. 2571-2589 The Normandie Bridge, France: ‘A New Record for Cable-Stayed Bridges Michel Virlogeux Structural Engineering Intemational 4/94. pp. 208-213. Internationel Conference on Overhead Line Design and Construction Theory and Practice (up to 150 kV) Conference Publication Number 297 pp. 60-74 Principles of Structural Stability Hans Ziegler 2ed. Basel, Stuttgart: Birkhiiuser, 1977 ISBN 3-7643-0886-9 709