FULL-SCALE TEST OF FRICTION DAMPER FOR CABLE VIBRATION MITIGATION

A full-scale test of cable with attached friction damper was conducted. The tested cable reached 215.58m in length. The cable was excited manully to reach certain amplitude then the free decay curve was recorded. The damping of the cable was then calculated based on these free decay curves. It was found that the damping of the cable greatly increased when friction damper started to work. The damping varied with damper installation length ratio, friction damper force, vibration mode and amplitude. The measured maximum damping from the experiment was nearly the same as that of the analytical prediction, and it mainly relied on damper installation length ratio. The curves of damping vs. amplitude and mode number of cable vibration were also similar to the analysis. On the other hand, the difference is also found for the critical amplitude to the maximum damping and friction damper stick to the cable. It was indicated that the analytical method based on the assumption of taut string and equivalent energy dissipation in one cycle of oscillation should be revised for the effect of bending stiffness and strongly nonlinearity of friction damepr should be further considered.