Improvement of dynamic responses of a pedestrian bridge by utilizing decorative wind chimes

A novel approach is presented to improve dynamic responses of a pedestrian bridge by utilizing decorative wind chimes. Through wind tunnel tests, it was verified that wind chimes can provide stabilization effects against flutter instability, especially at positive or negative wind angles of attack. At zero degrees of angle of attack, the wind chimes can change the flutter pattern from rapid divergence to gradual divergence. The decorative wind chimes can also provide damping effects to suppress the lateral sway motion of the bridge caused by pedestrian footfalls and wind forces. For this purpose, the swing frequency of the wind chimes should be about the same as the structural frequency, which can be achieved by adjusting the swing length of the wind chimes. The mass and the swing damping level are other two important and mutually interactive parameters in addition to the swing length. In general, 3% to 5% swing damping is necessary to achieve favorite results. In the study case, the equivalent damping level of the entire system can be increased from originally assumed 1% up to 5% by using optimized wind chimes.