Smart Damping System Based on MR Damper and Electromagnetic Induction Device for Suppressing Vibration of Stay Cable

This paper investigates the effectiveness of a smart damping system consisting of a magnetorheological (MR) damper and an electromagnetic induction (EMI) device in reducing cable vibrations. The smart damping system incorporates an EMI device to reduce complexity of conventional MR damper based semi-active control system by eliminating external power sources. This is because the EMI part in the system generates electrical energy (i.e., induced voltage) from mechanical energy (i.e., reciprocal motions of an MR damper), which can be used as a power source for the MR damper. The primary goal of this experimental study is to evaluate the performance of the proposed smart damping system using a full-scale, 44.7 meters long, high-tension cable. To this end, free vibration responses and damping of the proposed smart damping system were compared with those of an equivalent passive control system. The experimental results show that the smart damping system shows better control performance than all the passive control cases.