Passive control system for seismic protection of a multi-tower cable-stayed bridge

Abstract

The performance of passive control system for the seismic protection of a multi-tower cable-stayed bridge with the application of partially longitudinal constraint system is investigated. The seismic responses of the Jiashao Bridge, a six-tower cable-stayed bridge using the partially longitudinal constraint system are studied under real earthquake ground motions. The effects of the passive control devices including the viscous fluid dampers and elastic cables on the seismic responses of the bridge are examined by taking different values of parameters of the devices. Further, the optimization design principle of passive control system using viscous fluid dampers is presented to determine the optimized parameters of the viscous fluid dampers. The results of the investigations show that the control objective of the multi-tower cable-stayed bridge with the partially longitudinal constraint system is to reduce the base shears and moments of bridge towers longitudinally restricted with the bridge deck. The viscous fluid dampers are found to be more effective than elastic cables in controlling the seismic responses. The optimized parameters for the viscous fluid dampers are determined following the principle that the peak displacement at the end of bridge deck reaches to the maximum value, which can yield maximum reductions in the base shears and moments of bridge towers longitudinally restricted with the bridge deck, with slight increases in the base shears and moments of bridge towers longitudinally unrestricted with the bridge deck.