Experimental–Numerical Analysis on the Cable Vibration Behavior of a Long-Span Rail-Cum-Road Cable-Stayed Bridge under the Action of High-Speed Trains

Abstract

Rail-cum-road cable-stayed bridges are widely used to span rivers, bays, and valleys. It is vital to understand the vibration behavior of the cables, which are the crucial load-bearing components of a cable-stayed bridge, as it is the leading cause of cable fatigue. First, a numerical model of cable vibration under double-end excitation was derived by neglecting the bending stiffness and was verified through a cable’s multi-segment bar finite element model, and a numerical solution program was compiled based on MATLAB R2022a software. Then, a finite element model (FEM) was established according to the design documents of a long-span rail-cum-road cable-stayed bridge. Finally, the dynamic response of the cable under the train loads was analyzed based on the FEM and numerical model. The study shows that the numerical model can accurately simulate the cable with a relative error of less than 1% for its first four frequencies compared with the FEM; the maximum displacement amplitude appears at the longest cable near the middle of the main span; the vibration frequency of the cable is approximate to the cable end excitation frequency within a 1% discrepancy; and the vibration amplitude at the center of the cable is approximately twice that of the excitation amplitude at the end of the cable.