• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.37-52
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• 2014

The accurate determination of cable tension is important to the monitoring of the condition of a cable-stayed bridge. When applying a vibration-based formula to identify the tension of a real cable under sag, stiffness and boundary conditions, the resulting error must not be overlooked. In this work, by resolving the implicit frequency function of a real cable under the above conditions numerically, indirect methods of determining the cable force and a method to calculate the corresponding cable mode frequency are investigated. The error in the tension is studied by numerical simulation, and an empirical error correction formula is presented by fitting the relationship between the cable force error and cable parameters ${\lambda}^2$ and ${\xi}$. A case study on two real cables of the Shanghai Changjiang Bridge shows that employing the method proposed in this paper can increase the accuracy of the determined cable force and reduce the computing time relative to the time required for the finite element model.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2022

Cables are critical components of cable-stayed bridges. A structural health monitoring system provides real-time cable tension recording for cable health monitoring. However, the measurement data involve multiple sources of variability, i.e., varying environmental and operational factors, which increase the complexity of cable condition monitoring. In this study, a one-class classification method is developed for cable condition assessment using Bayesian factor analysis (FA). The single-peaked vehicle-induced cable tension is assumed to be relevant to vehicle positions and weights. The Bayesian FA is adopted to establish the correlation model between cable tensions and vehicles. Vehicle weights are assumed to be latent variables and the influences of different transverse positions are quantified by coefficient parameters. The Bayesian theorem is employed to estimate the parameters and variables automatically, and the damage index is defined on the basis of the well-trained model. The proposed method is applied to one cable-stayed bridge for cable damage detection. Significant deviations of the damage indices of Cable SJS11 were observed, indicating a damaged condition in 2011. This study develops a novel method to evaluate the health condition of individual cable using the FA in the Bayesian framework. Only vehicle-induced cable tensions are used and there is no need to monitor the vehicles. The entire process, including the data pre-processing, model training and damage index calculation of one cable, takes only 35 s, which is highly efficient.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.982-996
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• 2016

In this paper, new tethered aerial robots including roaming tethered aerial robots (RTARs) for radioactive material sampling and stationary tethered aerial robots (STARs) for environment monitoring are proposed to meet extremely-long-endurance missions of nuclear power plants. The flight of the proposed tethered aerial robots may last for a few days or even a few months as long as the tethered cable provides continuous power. A high voltage AC or DC power system was newly adopted to reduce the mass of the tethered cable. The RTAR uses a tethered cable spooled from the aerial robot and an aerial tension control system. The aerial tension control system provides the appropriate tension to the tethered cable, which is accordingly laid down on the ground as the RTAR roams. The STAR includes a tethered cable spooled from the ground and a ground tension control system, which enables the STAR to reach high altitudes. Prototypes of the RTAR and STAR were designed and successfully demonstrated in outdoor environments, where the load power, power type, operating frequency, and flight attitude of the RTAR and STAR were: 180 W, AC 100 kHz, and 20 m; and 300 W, AC or DC 100 kHz, and 80 m, respectively.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.155-169
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• 2006

In this paper, the application of magnetoelasticity in static tension monitoring for large steel cables is discussed. Magnetoelastic (EM) stress sensors make contact-free tension monitoring possible for hanger cables and post-tensioned cables on suspension and cable-stayed bridges. By quantifying the correlation of magnetic relative permeability with tension and temperature, the EM sensors inspect the load levels in the steel cables. Cable tension monitoring on Qiangjiang (QJ) 4th Bridge demonstrates the reliability of the EM sensors.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.93-100
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• 2014

This study presents the recomposition of MBM (measurement-based model) using natural frequencies and modes from the usually measured data, and the evaluation of cable tension in service from the analysis results upon MBM of existing CSB (cable stayed bridge). The cable tension is shown to be different according to the position attached to cable and loading type. The measured cable tensions are not different distinctly according to position attached cable under dead and live loads, but larger than those under design loads. The distribution of cable tension calculated upon the MBM is similar to those of measured tension although the former is more than those of cable tension upon the design model. Considering to long-term behaviors of cable, therefore, the design of cable in CSB needs to apply the analysis results on MBM. For this purpose, future study needs lots of measured data and MBM is used to analyze the long-term behavior of cable in CSB.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.47-67
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• 2014

This study has been motivated to examine the performance of a wireless sensor system under the typhoons as well as to analyze the effect of the typhoons on the bridge's vibration responses and the variation of cable forces. During the long-term field experiment on a real cable-stayed bridge in years 2011-2012, the bridge had experienced two consecutive typhoons, Bolaven and Tembin, and the wireless sensor system had recorded data of wind speeds and vibration responses from a few survived sensor nodes. In this paper, the wireless structural health monitoring of stay cables under the two consecutive typhoons is presented. Firstly, the wireless monitoring system for cable-stayed bridge is described. Multi-scale vibration sensor nodes are utilized to measure both acceleration and PZT dynamic strain from stay cables. Also, cable forces are estimated by a tension force monitoring software based on vibration properties. Secondly, the cable-stayed bridge with the wireless monitoring system is described and its wireless monitoring capacities for deck and cables are evaluated. Finally, the structural health monitoring of stay cables under the attack of the two typhoons is described. Wind-induced deck vibration, cable vibration and cable force variation are examined based on the field measurements in the cable-stayed bridge under the two consecutive typhoons.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.375-380
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• 2011

Loading/unloading at sea is necessitated as larger container ships are being used. It is also unavoidable to load/unload at sea during military operations. An experimental cable array robot system, which can be used for loading/unloading at sea, consisting of four cables operated by four motors is designed and built. Even though it has simple structure, it has a large pay-load/robot-weight ratio, flexibility and wide workspace and can be easily built at low cost. In order to plan and control the paths of end-effector, two interpolation methods are introduced and compared. Since the robot is entirely based on cable tension, an analysis of tension is also presented for monitoring and planning purpose.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.66-73
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• 2024

Stay-cable is one of the most important load carrying members in cable-stayed bridges. Monitoring structural integrity of stay-cables is crucial for evaluating the structural condition of the cable-stayed bridge. For stay-cables, tension and damping ratio are estimated based on modal properties as a measure of structural integrity. Since the monitoring system continuously measures the vibration for the long-term period, data acquisition systems should be stable and power-efficiency as the hardware system. In addition, massive signals from the data acquisition systems are continuously generated, so that automated analysis system should be indispensable. In order to fulfill these purpose simultaneously, this study presents an autonomous cable monitoring system based on domain-knowledge using IoT for continuous cable monitoring systems of cable-stayed bridges. An IoT system was developed to provide effective and power-efficient data acquisition and on-board processing capability for Edge-computing. Automated peak-picking algorithm using domain knowledge was embedded to the IoT system in order to analyze massive data from continuous monitoring automatically and reliably. To evaluate its operational performance in real fields, the developed autonomous monitoring system has been installed on a cable-stayed bridge in Korea. The operational performance are confirmed and validated by comparing with the existing system in terms of data transmission rates, accuracy and efficiency of tension estimation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2013.04a
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• pp.830-834
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• 2013

This study presents a method to monitor cable force of a long-span cable-stayed bridge using a smart piezoelectric sensor system. The following approaches are implemented in order to achieve the objective. Firstly, the method to utilize piezoelectric materials for the health monitoring of stay cables is presented. For strain measurement of a stay cable, a PZT-embedded smart skin is designed to overcome the difficulties of bonding PZT sensors directly on stay cables. Secondly, a piezoelectric strain monitoring system for stay cables is designed. For the operation of the sensor board, the Imote2 sensor platform is used to provide the computation, wireless communication and power supply units. The feasibility of the proposed monitoring system is then evaluated on a full-scale cable of a cable-stayed bridge.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.379-392
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• 2011

This paper presents a multi-functional system, consisting of a magnetorheological (MR) damper and an electromagnetic induction (EMI) device, and its applications in stay cables. The proposed system is capable of offering multiple functions: (1) mitigating excessive vibrations of cables, (2) estimating cable tension, and (3) harvesting energy for wireless sensors used health monitoring of cable-stayed bridges. In the proposed system, the EMI device, consisting of permanent magnets and a solenoid coil, can converts vibration energy into electrical energy (i.e., induced emf); hence, it acts as an energy harvesting system. Moreover, the cable tension can be estimated by using the emf signals obtained from the EMI device. In addition, the MR damper, whose damping property is controlled by the harvested energy from the EMI device, can effectively reduce excessive cable vibrations. In this study, the multi-functionality of the proposed system is experimentally evaluated by conducting a shaking table test as well as a full-scale stay cable in a laboratory setting. In the shaking table experiment, the energy harvesting capability of the EMI device for wireless sensor nodes is investigated. The performance on the cable tension estimation and the vibration mitigation are evaluated using the full-scale cable test setup. The test results show that the proposed system can sufficiently generate and store the electricity for operating a wireless sensor node twice per day, significantly alleviate vibration of a stay cable (by providing about 20% larger damping compared to the passive optimal case), and estimate the cable tension accurately within a 2.5% error.