Experimental study of cable vibration control

The performance of MR damper is obtained experimentally with different loading frequencies and currents. A 7.16m-long stay cable with a prototype-to-model scale factor of eight is established for the vibration control study. Frequencies of the stay cable under different tension forces are measured and compared with those obtained through theoretical calculations. Then, a free vibration control test is carried out with a dropping weight method and forced vibration control test is carried out with a shaker. The measured data show that the damper is good for cable vibration control within its working current range (zero to maximum) though beyond some value, the control effect stays almost the same with increased current. It is also observed that the damper can reduce cable vibration under a variety of excitation frequencies, especially for the resonance cases.