Electromagnetic Shunt Damper for Bridge Cable Vibration Mitigation: Full-Scale Experimental Study

Long bridge cables are vulnerable to unanticipated large vibrations induced by earthquakes, wind, and traffic loads. The use of various dampers, including inerter dampers (IDs), as an effective approach for the mitigation of cable vibration has been extensively studied in recent years. This work presents an innovative strategy wherein an electromagnetic shunt damper (EMSD) is applied to emulate the mechanical behavior of traditional IDs. The proposed EMSD-ID design exploits analogous relationships between mechanical and electrical systems and provides unprecedented efficiency and flexibility in exerting large inertance. A full-scale EMSD-ID prototype was designed and fabricated, and its effective control performance was verified in a laboratory experiment involving a cable-stayed bridge model with a length of 135 m.