Cable Vibration Mitigation by Added SMA Wires

Limiting the oscillations of suspension or cable-stayed bridges requires a suitable strategy for the
cable vibration mitigation. This paper approaches the problem by a campaign of laboratory tests conducted for a
suspended steel cable specimen of diameter 2 mm. First the dynamic behaviour of the cable in free vibrations is
studied. The main mechanical parameters, such as natural frequencies and damping coefficients, are evaluated by
an elaboration of the time histories recorded by two tri-axial accelerometers. A wire of diameter 1 mm, made by
shape memory alloy (SMA), is then added to the cable. Several configurations for the system ‘‘steel cable–SMA
wire’’ are conceived. The goal is to find how the dynamic behaviour of the steel cable changes, and to assess
which configuration could give the best results in terms of cable vibration mitigation and damping increase.