• Wind and Structures
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.125-146
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• 2006

Stonecutters Bridge of Hong Kong is a cable-stayed bridge with two single-column pylons each 298 m high and an aerodynamic twin deck. The total length of the bridge is 1596 m with a main span of 1018 m. The top 118 m of the tower will comprise structural steel and concrete composite while the bottom part will be of reinforced concrete. The bridge deck at the central span will be of steel whilst the side spans will be of concrete. Stonecutters Bridge has adopted a twin-girder deck design with a wide clear separation of 14.3 m between the two longitudinal girders. Although a number of studies have been conducted to investigate the aerodynamic performance of twin-girder deck, the actual real life application of this type of deck is extremely limited. This therefore triggered the need for conducting the present studies, the main objective of which is to investigate the performance of Stonecutters Bridge against flutter at its in-service stage as well as during construction. Based on the flutter derivatives obtained from the 1:80 scale rigid section model experiment, flutter analysis was carried out using 3-D finite element based single parameter searching method developed by the second author of this paper. A total of 6 finite element models of the bridge covering the in-service stage as well as 5 construction stages were established. The dynamic characteristics of the bridge associated with these stages were computed and applied in the analyses. Apart from the critical wind speeds for the onset of flutter, the dominant modes of vibration participating in the flutter vibration were also identified. The results indicate that the bridge will be stable against flutter at its in-service stage as well as during construction at wind speeds much higher than the verification wind speed of 95 m/s (1-minute mean).

• Journal of KSNVE
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.147-155
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• 2001

This paper is concerned with the real-time automatic tuning of the multi-input multi-output positive position feedback controllers for smart structures by the genetic algorithms. The genetic algorithms have proven its effectiveness in searching optimal design parameters without falling into local minimums thus rendering globally optimal solutions. The previous real-time algorithm that tunes a single control parameter is extended to tune more parameters of the MIMO PPF controller. We employ the MIMO PPF controller since it can enhance the damping value of a target mode without affecting other modes if tuned properly. Hence, the traditional positive position feedback controller can be used in adaptive fashion in real time. The final form of the MIMO PPF controller results in the centralized control, thus it involves many parameters. The bounds of the control Parameters are estimated from the theoretical model to guarantee the stability. As in the previous research, the digital MIMO PPF control law is downloaded to the DSP chip and a main program, which runs genetic algorithms in real time, updates the parameters of the controller in real time. The experimental frequency response results show that the MIMO PPF controller tuned by GA gives better performance than the theoretically designed PPF. The time response also shows that the GA tuned MIMO PPF controller can suppress vibrations very well.