Parametric vibration of carbon fiber reinforced plastic cables with damping effects in long-span cable-stayed bridges

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) cables are superior to steel cables in cable-stayed bridges due to their light weight and excellent durability. It is a kind of flexible structural component with strongly weak shear stiffness. Hence, understanding the dynamic properties of CFRP cables poses a significant issue in bridge engineering. In this paper, the parametric vibrations of CFRP cables is performed and compared with steel cables by using a non-linear finite element method. The CFRP and steel cables of a cable-stayed bridge with a span of 1400 m, designed by the same criteria, are studied as typical cases. The material damping, aerodynamic damping and viscous dampers are simulated in the analysis, and the variations of the material damping and aerodynamic damping due to amplitude variations are taken into consideration. The dynamic responses of cables due to stochastic and harmonic support excitations are investigated. Numerical results show that the vibration amplitudes of steel cables are greater than that of CFRP cables. The parametric vibration of CFRP cable is more sensitive to damping than that of steel cable. The effects of material damping and viscous dampers on parametric vibration of both steel and CFRP cables are very significant, while that of aerodynamic damping is inferior to the former two dampers.