Bistable tuned mass damper for suppressing the vortex induced vibrations in suspension bridges

The usage of conventional tuned mass damper (TMD) was proved as an effective method for passive mitigating vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a bridge deck. Although a variety of linear TMD systems have been so far utilized for vibration control of suspension bridges, a sensitive TMD mechanism to wind spectrum frequency is lacking. Here, we introduce a bistable tuned mass damper (BTMD) mechanism which has an exceptional sensitivity to a broadband input of vortex shedding velocity for suppressing VIV in suspension bridge deck. By use of the Monte Carlo simulation, performance of the nonlinear BTMD is shown to be more efficient than the conventional linear TMD under two different wind load excitations of harmonic (sinusoidal) and broadband input of vortex shedding. Consequently, an appropriate algorithm is proposed to optimize the design parameters of the nonlinear BTMD for Kap Shui Mun Bridge, and then the BTMD system is localized for the interior deck of the suspension bridge.