Experimental Study of Fatigue Performance of Stay Cable Damper
Oil dampers are widely used as a popular countermeasure to mitigate the stay cables vibration. In this study, one actual oil damper designed for some long cable-stayed was experimentally investigated to evaluate the durability. 4 million cycles loading, with frequency of 4 Hz and amplitude of 1 mm, was imposed on the damper. The excitation displacement and damping force were measured and the equivalent damping was calculated from the experimental results. The stiffness effects of dampers behaved during durability tests were also analyzed quantitatively. The test results showed that the dampers were still in good condition after 4 million cycles loading and the dampers temperatures were stable at 50 degree centigrade during the test. According to the durability test results, a model for performance deterioration of damper was proposed to predict the lifetime of oil dampers.