Experimental investigation of wind-induced vibrations of main cables for suspension bridges in construction phases

The main cables of suspension bridges show a changing cross-sectional shape with the evolution of construction phases, and they may suffer from severe wind-induced vibrations at certain conditions. The primary objective of this research was to examine the aerodynamic performance of the main cable in construction phases and to develop appropriate countermeasures to eliminate the potential wind-induced vibrations. Two cross-sections with different shapes of a main cable were chosen, and a series of wind tunnel tests were performed in a reduced wind velocity range of 32–366 using elastically mounted sectional models. Galloping occurred for the two cross-sections under certain wind incidence angles when a critical velocity was reached. No obvious hysteresis phenomenon of galloping was observed in the tests. The steady amplitude of galloping increased linearly with wind velocity and the increasing rate almost kept constant for different structural damping ratios. The aerodynamic nonlinearity, rather than the structural damping nonlinearity, is the main source leading to the limited amplitude oscillation. An empirical expression of galloping amplitudes for the two cross-sections was derived based on the test data. Meanwhile, the critical wind velocity was studied in a Scruton (Sc) number range of 108–4196 (as varied by changing the initial structural damping ratio between 0.093% and 3.62%). Results showed that the Den Hartog criterion was applicable to forecast the possibility of galloping, but not able to estimate the critical wind velocity for the main cable. Linear fitting method can be used to predict the critical velocity based on the experimental data. Finally, three vibration mitigation measures were studied, and a combination of structural and aerodynamic measures was recommended for galloping mitigation of main cables.