A Comparison of Vibration Control Performance for the Electromagnetic Damper with Various Control Strategies

Abstract

Vibration control and monitoring of cables, the main structural component of cable-stayed bridges, are becoming more important as their span length increases. Many studies have been conducted to increase the damping performance of cables for preventing unexpected disasters. An electromagnetic (EM) damper was proposed as one of the many efforts to reduce cable vibration. The EM damper is capable of performing three functions simultaneously: vibration control, energy harvesting, and tension estimation. Moreover, it can be used as an adaptable control device due to its characteristic that the damping force varies depending on the resistance of the connected external circuit. In this study, the effectiveness of passive control and two-mode (with energy harvesting circuit) control for the EM damper was numerically investigated. The dynamic model of the damper was fitted to the external resistance of 0 Ohm and EH circuit, respectively, and its behavior was sufficiently simulated with an error of about 10%. A numerical simulation based on the designed damper model was conducted to compare vibration attenuation performance under actual wind load conditions.