Effects of TMD on buffeting response of a bridge pylon

The investigation on reduction of wind-induced vibrations of a cable-stayed bridge pylon of single-column is presented in this paper. As excessive buffeting response of the pylon in its construction stage was predicted, a pendulum-type tuned mass damper (TMD) was designed to be installed on the top of the pylon for reducing the vibration. In order to assess the effects of the TMD on wind actions, both experimental investigation and analytical study were performed. The aeroelastic model test in scale of 1:60 was performed in atmosphere boundary layer wind tunnel to investigate the buffeting response of the pylon in the cases of the pylon installed with or without TMD. The experiment and numerical study show that the TMD installed in optimum condition can reduce the buffeting response level by about 50% of the original level of the pylon. The optimum parameters of the TMD and its efficiency were also studied by numerical simulation.