Abstract
Cable force estimation is essential for security assessment of cable-stayed bridges. Cable force estimation methods based on the relationship between cable force and frequency have been extensively studied and used during both construction phase and service phase. However, the effect induced by inclination angle of the cable is not included in the establishment of frequency-cable force relationship as horizontal cable model is normally employed. This study aims to investigate the influence of the inclination angle on vibration based cable force estimation and provide practical formulas accordingly. Firstly numerical examples of fixed-fixed and hinged-hinged cables are simulated to illustrate the necessity of considering the inclination angle effect on the modal parameters and cable force estimation for inclined cables with small sag. Then practical formulas considering the inclination angle effect to estimate the cable force of fixed-fixed and hinged-hinged cables via the fundamental frequency are established accordingly. For the inclined cables with unknown boundary conditions, the coefficients reflecting boundary condition are predicted via the practical formulas for fixed-fixed and hinged-hinged cables. And the cable force considering the influence of inclination angle and unknown boundary conditions is obtained by iteration method. Finally, numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Highlights
Cable-stayed bridges are widely used due to their reasonable structural force, beautiful shape, mature construction methods and large span (Zhang et al 2020)
Note: Fundamental Frequency (FF) denotes fundamental frequency; Reference cable Force (RCF) denotes reference cable force; Relative Error (RE) denotes relative error; Estimated Force (EF) denotes estimated force manifests that the practical formula can be established according to the concerned cable when higher precision is required in practical application
This study investigated the influence of inclination angle on cable force estimation accuracy and provided practical formulas
Summary
Cable-stayed bridges are widely used due to their reasonable structural force, beautiful shape, mature construction methods and large span (Zhang et al 2020). Cable force has become one of the most important indexes for cable-stayed bridge condition assessment (Ren and Hu 2009; Zhao et al 2020; Tian et al 2021). The main principle is that the cable force can be estimated by the measured frequencies according to the specific relationship between the cable force and frequency (Cunha et al 2001). During the process of establishing the relationship between the cable force and frequency, various factors, such as bending stiffness, sag, boundary conditions, and temperature are often simplified or ignored, which would lead to non-negligible errors in the estimated cable force (Dan et al 2014; Chen et al 2018)
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