Influence of the Non-linear Effects in the Design of Viscous Dampers for Bridge Cables

In this master thesis the performance of external viscous dampers attached to cables in cable-stayed bridges have been studied. A comparison has been performed between a linear and a non-linear cable model. The comparison was carried out for two bridge cables, one from the Dubrovnik Bridge and the other from the Normandie Bridge. The performance of the dampers have been measured in terms of maximum achieved damping ratio and minimum amplitude of vibration. The analysis was performed using the finite element method. The damping ratio was measured using both the half-power bandwidth method and by calculating the loss factor. The half-power bandwidth method can only be applied to a linear system. Therefore, the loss factor was evaluated for the linear model and compared to the results obtained using the half-power bandwidth method. From the comparison, it was concluded that the damping ratio evaluated using the loss factor was similar to the results obtained when using the half-power bandwidth method. However, when calculating the loss factor, it was of great importance that the resonance frequency of the system was accurately determined. The loss factor was then calculated for the non-linear model and compared to the results obtained for the linear model. Since the loss factor measures the energy dissipated in a system, it could be utilised for the non-linear model. When computing the strain energy for the non-linear model an approximate method was used to take into consideration the strain energy caused by the static deformation of the cable. From the comparison between the linear and non-linear cable models, it was concluded that the optimal damper coefficients obtained by both models are not significantly different. However, there is an uncertainty in the results due to the fact that an approximate method was used when calculating the strain energy for the nonlinear model. It was also observed that a very accurate evaluation of the system’s resonance frequency was needed to calculate the loss factor. It was also observed that the variation in amplitude of vibration for varying damper coefficient was small for all modes of vibration for the Dubrovnik Bridge Cable as well as for the first mode of vibration for the Normandie Bridge Cable. The difference in the results between the two bridge cables needs to be investigated further in order to get a better understanding of the results