Non-linear stochastic response of a shallow cable

The paper considers the stochastic response of geometrical non-linear shallow cables. Large rain-wind induced cable oscillations with non-linear interactions have been observed in many large cable stayed bridges during the last decades. The response of the cable is investigated for a reduced two-degrees-of-freedom system with one modal coordinate for the in-plane displacement and one for the out-of-plane displacement. At first harmonic varying chord elongation at excitation frequencies close to the corresponding eigenfrequencies of the cable is considered in order to identify stable modes of vibration. Depending on the initial conditions the system may enter one of two states of vibration in the static equilibrium plane with the out-of-plane displacement equal to zero, or a whirling state with the out-of-plane displacement different from zero. Possible solutions are found both analytically and numerically. Next, the chord elongation is modelled as a narrow-banded Gaussian stochastic process, and it is shown that all the indicated harmonic solutions now become instable with probability one. Instead, the cable jumps randomly back and forth between the two in-plane and the whirling mode of vibration. A theory for determining the probability of occupying either of these modes at a certain time is derived based on a homogeneous, continuous time three states Markov chain model. It is shown that the transitional probability rates can be determined by first-passage crossing rates of the envelope process of the chord wise component of the support point motion relative to a safe domain determined from the harmonic analysis of the problem.