Design and analysis of magnetorheological dampers with intelligent control systems for stay cables

The design method of MR damper for suppression of stay cables vibration was proposed based on the design approaches of structural active control, semiactive control and intelligent control systems. The MR damper for stay cables of Shandong Binzhou Yellow River Bridge was designed by utilizing the proposed design method, and the analysis of the cables incorporated with the designed MR damper was carried out. The control effectiveness of the designed MR dampers reduced the prototype cable wind-induced vibration using semiactive control strategy proposed by HARVOT. Active control, semiactive control and passive-on and passive-off control strategy were verified numerically and compared with each other. The analytical results show that the designed MR damper can effectively reduce the cable wind-induced vibration. The availability and validity of the design method of MR damper for cables were also simultaneously demonstrated through the numerical study on the prototype cables transversely connected with MR damper near the lower anchorage.