Bridge flutter control using eccentric rotational actuators

An active mass damper system for flutter control of bridges is presented. Flutter stability of bridge structures is improved with the help of eccentric rotational actuators (ERA). By using a bridge girder model that moves in two degrees of freedom and is subjected to wind, the equations of motion of the controlled structure equipped with ERA are established. In order to take structural nonlinearities into consideration, flutter analysis is carried out by numerical simulation scheme based on a 4th-order Runge-Kutta algorithm. An example demonstrates the performance and efficiency of the proposed device. In comparison with known active mass dampers for flutter control, the movable eccentric mass damper and the rotational mass damper, the power demand is significantly reduced. This is of advantage for an implementation of the proposed device in real bridge girders. A preliminary design of a realization of ERA in a bridge girder is presented.