Stability of suspension bridge II aerodynamic vs structural damping

In this paper we consider a few dynamic models of suspension bridges described by partial differential equations with linear and nonlinear couplings. We study analytically the stability properties of these models and the relative effectiveness of aerodynamic and structural damping. Increasing either of these damping coefficients indefinitely does not necessarily increase the decay rate indefinitely. In view of possible disastrous effects of high wind, structural damping is preferable to viscous damping. These results are illustrated by numerical simulation.