Design formulas for vibration control of taut cables using passive MR dampers

Using magnetorheological (MR) dampers in multiswitch open-loop control mode has been shown to be cost-effective for cable vibration mitigation. In this paper, a method for analyzing the damping performance of taut cables incorporating MR dampers in open-loop control mode is developed considering the effects of damping coefficient, damper stiffness, damper mass, and stiffness of the damper support. Making use of a three-element model of MR dampers and complex modal analysis, both numerical and asymptotic solutions are obtained. An analytical expression is obtained from the asymptotic solution to evaluate the equivalent damping ratio of the cable-damper system in the open-loop control mode. The individual and combined effects of the damping coefficient, damper stiffness, damper mass and stiffness of damper support on vibration control effectiveness are investigated in detail. The main thrust of the present study is to derive a general formula explicitly relating the normalized system damping ratio and the normalized damper parameters in consideration of all concerned effects, which can be easily used for the design of MR dampers to achieve optimal open-loop vibration control of taut cables.