Active tendon control of suspension bridges: Study on the active cables configuration

In a previous study, the potential of damping suspension bridges with active stay cables has been evaluated on a numerical model of a suspension bridge, and demonstrated experimentally on a laboratory mockup. In this paper, we extend our study to explore two different configurations of the active stay-cables: one classical configuration, corresponding to attaching the active stay-cables between the top of the pylons and the deck (configuration I) and, another configuration, consisting of attaching the stay-cables between the base of the pylons and the catenary (configuration II). The analysis confirmed that both configurations are effective with a slight superiority of the second configuration. The study is conducted numerically and experimentally on a suspension bridge mock-up, by considering two types of active stay-cables. The experimental results confirmed the numerical predictions, and demonstrated the effectiveness of the second configuration.