Vibration reduction in stay cables by means of viscous dampers is of great interest in cable damage prevention and serviceability of structural system supported by such cables. The paper presents a study on the effectiveness, as well as the limits, of rotational viscous dampers and springs inserted at the two ends of a bending-stiff taut cable; influence of rotational stiffness of the springs is also investigated. After a nondimensional expression of the equation of motion has been obtained, as in other cases of nonproportionally damped continuous structures, complex modal analysis is pursued, obtaining complex eigenvalues and eigenfunctions. Comparison with intermediate dampers, widely used in bridge engineering, is performed showing the range of nondimensional parameters for which the proposed approach is of interest. Finally, a numerical technique based on complex mode superposition is presented in order to evaluate time domain responses for transversal distributed excitation. As an example, the procedure is applied to a wind-exposed cable. © 2010 ASCE.

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