Wind-induced vibration of structural cables

Abstract

The wind-induced vibration of cables has been widely studied over the past decades because of cables’ many applications in cable-stayed, suspension, and tied-arched bridges, and power transmission lines. They have been mostly investigated through research conducted on rigid model cables with a finite length and circular cross-sectional geometry that represents a section model of a long cable. These models have been considered accurate because the behavior of flow over a cable and circular cylinder is similar, although there are structural differences between them. Cables usually experience small- to large-amplitude vibration due to wind loads that causes fatigue failure and poses a significant threat to the safety and serviceability of these structures. Although this paper mainly focuses on reviewing the past studies about different types of wind-induced cable vibration, some general information related to circular cylinders has been briefly reported for better understanding of the flow over cables. This paper incorporates an extensive review based on the existing papers about different sources of wind-induced cable vibration consisting of vortex-induced vibration, rain-wind-induced vibration, dry galloping, ice galloping, and wake galloping. Furthermore, this paper explains the mechanism, vibration source, and a mitigation solution for each type based on the past studies using wind tunnel experiments, computational fluid dynamics, field measurements, or analytical approaches. This review helps to better understand the aerodynamics and fluid–structure interactions of cables with or without ice/rain on the surface, while static and dynamic wind loads act on the structure.