SUPER AND COMBINATORIAL HARMONIC RESPONSE OF FLEXIBLE ELASTIC CABLES WITH SMALL SAG

The paper deals with the analysis of cables in stayed bridges and TV-towers, where the excitation is caused by harmonically varying in-plane motions of the upper support point with the amplitude U. Such cables are characterized by a sag-to-chord-length ratio below &0uml;02, which means that the lowest circular eigenfrequencies for in-plane and out-of-plane eigenvibrations, ω₁and ω₂, are closely separated. The dynamic analysis is performed by a two-degree-of-freedom modal decomposition in the lowest in-plane and out-of-plane eigenmodes. Modal parameters are evaluated based on the eigenmodes for the parabolic approximation to the equilibrium suspension. Superharmonic components of the ordern , supported by the parametric terms of the excitation and the non-linear coupling terms, are registered in the response for circular frequency ω?ω₁/n. At moderate U, the cable response takes place entirely in the static equilibrium plane. At larger amplitudes the in-plane response becomes unstable and a coupled whirling superharmonic component occurs. In the paper a first order perturbation solution to the superharmonic response is performed based on the averaging method. For ω?(m/n)ω₁, m<n, the geometrical non-linear restoring forces gives rise to a substantial combinatorial harmonic component with the circular frequency (n/m)ω. Both entirely in-plane and coupled in-plane and out-of-plane responses occur. Based on an initial frequency analysis of the response, an analytical model for these vibrations is formulated with emphasis on superharmonics of the order n=3 and combinatorial harmonics of the order (n, m)=(3,2). All analytical solutions have been verified by direct numerical integration of the modal equations of motion.