Keywords: structural control, suspended bridge, wind buffeting, numerical simulations, feasibility, reliability.

The world today is faced with a growing need to control the great and still increasing numbers of large structures. The modern design of complex buildings must be in line with the definition and evaluation of performance, while safety must be assessed under different conditions [1]. Structural control solutions can give an important contribution so as to satisfy the high standard of performance, feasibility and safety. This paper deals with a suspended bridge model developed at numerical level. A commercial finite element code is used to simulate the structural response under the wind buffeting excitations and structural control solutions for the mitigation of unwanted dynamic effects are also modelled.

The wind load is regarded as the most aggressive dynamic excitation for long-span flexible structures, in terms of displacements and internal actions [2,3]. The simulations consider it applied on the towers and uniformly on the deck. Such application of the wind load on the deck is recognized as the most onerous for the bridge response in comparison to the spatial correlated case [4]. It represents the suitable condition for the evaluations of control strategies as those implemented.

The attention is focused on the reliability and robustness of the control solutions. When compared to active solutions, the passive one does not require power supply, control feedback connections and procession to produce the control forces, strong diffuse sensor network for the structure monitoring. This implies a huge simplification in all the implementations [5,6,7]. In the light of these considerations, passive control strategies have been implemented herein for the protection of the bridge. The control devices are defined as smart combining together different features. They are applied on the model in different connection schemes.

The proposed strategies have been compared with each other and with the uncontrolled configuration. Their efficacy in the reduction of the internal actions is reached and the positive contribution of the damping arises from several factors.

1

H. Fujitani, M. Teshigawara, W. Gojo, Y. Hirano, T. Saito, H. Fukuyama, "Framework for Performance-based Design of Building Structures", Computer Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 20, 62-77, 2005. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8667.2005.00377.x

2

M. Kitagawa, "Technology of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge", Structural Control and Health Monitoring, 11, 75-90, 2004. doi:10.1002/stc.31

3

K.H. Ostenfeld, "The Storebelt East Bridge", Structural Control and Health Monitoring, 11, 125-139, 2004. doi:10.1002/stc.35

4

Kim Ho-Kyung, M. Shinozuka, Chang Sung-Pil, "Geometrically Nonlinear Buffeting Response of a Cable-Stayed Bridge", Journal of Engineering Mechanics, 130, 848-857, 2004. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9399(2004)130:7(848)

5

F. Casciati, M. Domaneschi, "Confinement of Vibration Applied to a Benchmark Problem", "Proc. of Second European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring", 811-818, Monaco D, July 7-9, 2004.

6

M. Domaneschi, "Structural Control of Cable-stayed and Suspended Bridges", Ph.D. Thesis, University of Pavia, Italy, 2005.

7

K.Y. Wong, "Instrumentation and health monitoring of cable-supported bridges", Structural Control and Health Monitoring, 11, 91-124, 2004. doi:10.1002/stc.33

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