Active tendon control of cable-stayed bridges

This paper considers the active vibration control of cables and cable/structure systems with an active tendon controlling the axial displacement of the cable anchor point. It is demonstrated that a force feedback based on a collocated force sensor measuring the tension in the cable is feasible and that this control configuration can be associated with control laws with guaranteed stability properties. Experimental results are presented on a cable with small sag and on a cable/structure system. They show that the control algorithm can provide the structure with several percent of active damping and that the parametric resonance does not occur when the natural frequency of the structure is twice that of the cable.