Dynamic performance of cable-stayed bridge tower with multi-stage pendulum mass damper under wind excitations - II: Experiment

The possibility of using a multi-stage pendulum mass damper (MSPMD) to control wind-induced vibration of a single column tower of a cable-stayed bridge during construction was studied theoretically in part I of this work. In this paper, the performance of the MSPMD for reducing bridge tower vibration is studied experimentally. A MSPMD model and a tower model of the bridge with geometry scaling of 1:100 were designed and manufactured. Calibration of the MSPMD model with different wire lengths is conducted to verify the analytical model of the damper. A series of tests for the uncontrolled freestanding tower, tower with cables, and tower with MSPMD model are then performed under harmonic and white noise excitations. The experimental results show that the responses of the tower model significantly decrease with the installation of the MSPMD model, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the MSPMD to mitigate the vibration of the bridge tower.