Practical Formula for Cable Tension Estimation by Vibration Method
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 17, Issue 1
Abstract
The tension force of cables must be measured accurately during construction and maintenance stages for cable-supported bridge systems. On the basis of the transverse vibration equation of a cable and by using a curve-fitting technique to replace the numerical iterative process, a practical formula to estimate the cable tension is proposed in a simply explicit form, in which the bending stiffness of the cable is included, and the sag effect is neglected for simplicity by using the frequencies relative to antisymmetric or higher vibration modes of the cable. The capability of this formulation is verified through comparison with available experimental results and finite-element solutions, which indicate that the formula developed in this paper is sufficiently accurate and can be conveniently applied to field measurement for cable-supported bridge systems.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Casas, J. R. (1994). “A combined method for measuring cable forces: The cable-stayed Alamillo Bridge, Spain.” Struct. Eng. Int., 3, 235–240.
Humar, J. L. (1990). Dynamics of structures, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Kim, B. H., and Park, T. (2007). “Estimation of cable tension force using the frequency-based system identification method.” J. Sound Vib., 304(3–5), 660–676.
Ren, W. X., Gang, Chen, and Hu, W. (2005). “Empirical formulas to estimate cable tension by cable fundamental frequency.” Struct. Eng. Mech., 20(3), 363–380.
Ricciardi, G., and Saitta, F. (2008). “A continuous vibration analysis model for cables with sag and bending stiffness.” Eng. Struct., 30(5), 1459–1472.
Russell, J. C., and Lardner, T. J. (1998). “Experimental determination of frequencies and tension for elastic cables.” J. Eng. Mech. Div., 124(10), 1067–1072.
Shimada, T. (1994). “Estimating method of cable tension from natural frequency of high mode.” Proc. JSCE, 501(1–29), 163–171 (in Japanese).
Shinke, T., Hironaka, K., Zui, H., and Nishimura, H. (1980). “Practical formulas for estimation of cable tension by vibration method.” Proc. JSCE, 294, 25–34 (in Japanese).
Tabatabai, H., Mehrabi, A. B., Yen, W. P. (2003). “Bridge stay cable condition assessment using vibration measurement techniques.” Proc. SPIE Int. Soc. Opt. Eng., 3400, 194–204.
Wang, M. L., Chen, Z. L., Koontz, Steve S., and Lloyd, G. M. (2000). “Magnetoelastic permeability measurement for stress monitoring in steel tendons and cables.” Proc. SPIE. Int. Soc. Opt. Eng., 3995, 492–500.
Zui, H., Shinke, T., and Namita, Y. (1996). “Practical formulas for estimation of cable tension by vibration method.” J. Struct. Eng., 122(6), 651–656.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 17 • Issue 1 • January 2012
Pages: 161 - 164
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 8, 2010
Accepted: Nov 12, 2010
Published online: Nov 19, 2010
Published in print: Jan 1, 2012
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.