Measuring Methods of Cable Tension in Cable-Stayed Bridges

Abstract

This paper presents several methods usually used for measuring cable tension in cable-stayed bridges, especially frequency vibration method. Taken two different length stay-cables under given tension forces in a real cable-stayed bridge as an example, different modeling methods in finite element methods (FEM) were used to solve their natural vibration frequencies. The results by FEM were compared with those from other available theoretical predicting method. It was found that FEM based on tightening string model is more suitable for a long stay-cable. For a short stay-cable under given tension force, beam bending stiffness can be ignored in predicting its first five natural frequencies using a hinged beam model in FEM. While the predicted lower frequency using clamped beam FEM model is more accurate and reasonable.