KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering (0000) 00(0):1-8

Copyright 2015 Korean Society of Civil Engineers

DOI 10.1007/s12205-015-0771-8

Structural Engineering

pISSN 1226-7988, eISSN 1976-3808

www.springer.com/12205

TECHNICAL NOTE

Optimal Parameters of Viscous Damper for Hanged Cables in Arch Bridges

Viet Hung Cu*, Bing Han**, and Tuan Ngoc Nguyen***
Received December 14, 2014/Revised April 18, 2015/Accepted May 5, 2015/Published Online May 31, 2015

Abstract
Hanged cables of through and half-through arch bridges are vulnerable to dynamic excitation because their intrinsic damping is
very low. These components have been exhibiting unanticipated and excessive vibrations, which require more frequent
maintenance and affect normal operations of the entire arch bridge. Mitigation of cable vibrations is commonly addressed by
using an external damper attached to the cable. In this paper, the vibrations of hanged cables controlled by the viscous damper
system was studied in detail using an analytical formulation of the complex eigenvalue problem. Oscillation parameters of the
hanged cable-damper systems were analyzed by the exact values of complex eigenvalue. As a result, optimal parameters of the
viscous damper could be evaluated and selected in order to reduce vibrations of cable. In addition, a design example was
presented to justify the methodology.
Keywords: arch bridge, hanged cable, vibration, vibration reduction, viscous damper, damping ratio

1. Introduction
Nowadays, as a result of the developments in material studies,
design theories, and construction technologies, arch bridges are
rapidly developing in both quantity and span length. Hanged
cable systems become lighter, more flexible and have less
intrinsic damping; thus, they may suffer large amplitude vibrations
under dynamic excitations caused by moving vehicles, wind, and
rain-wind combinations (Helmut Wenzel, 2006; Kumarasena et
al., 2007). Cable vibrations may be induced by wind can be
categorized as vortex shedding, buffeting or wake galloping.
Moreover, the combination of rain and moderate speed wind can
cause high amplitude vibrations at low frequencies for inclined
hanged cables (Hikami and Shiraishi, 1988; Matsumoto et al.,
1992). The cable vibration also induced by periodic displacements
of anchorages under effects of traffic. Frequent and excessive
hanged cable vibrations require more frequent maintenance and
reduce the life span of the entire bridge. Thus, cable vibration
control is an important concern of engineers in design of new
bridges and retrofit of existing ones. Based on the passive control
methodology, viscous damping devices are commonly used for
bridge stay cables of medium length. Application of viscous
damping for hanged cable vibration reduction in arch bridges is
suitable because the length of cable is not large.
Free vibrations of a taut cable with an attached viscous damper
can be mathematically analysed by using complex eigenvalue

problems or energy-based methods. Carne (1981) and Kovacs

(1982) studied vibrations of the taut cable-damper system with
the damper attached near the end of cable and proposed the
approximate method to determine the first mode damping ratios.
Pacheco et al. (1993) proposed nondimensional parameters to
create a universal estimation curve of normalized modal damping
ratio versus the normalized damping coefficients. This universal
curve was applicable to an external damper located near the end
of the cable. Krenk (2000) obtained a simple analytical form of
the universal estimation curve by Pacheco et al. (1993) and an
asymptotic approximation of the damping ratios in the first few
modes for damper near the end of the cable. Free vibrations of a
taut cable with an attached linear viscous damper were investigated
using an analytical formulation of the complex eigenvalue
problem by Main and Jones (2002a). The taut cable with a
nonlinear power-law damper attached near the end of the cable
was also considered by Main and Jones (2002b). Tabatabai and
Mehrabi (2000) used a database of cable properties obtained from
real bridges to study mechanical viscous dampers for stay cables
including influences of sag and bending stiffness. Effects of
bending in taut cables were studied when Hoang and Fujino
(2007) simulated a viscous damper using asymptotic modal. The
design of an approximate formulas for damping of stay cabledamper system with the influences of sag and bending stiffness
were also proposed by Fujino and Hoang (2008). Cheng et al.
(2010) developed an energy-based framework to evaluate

*Lecturer, Bridge and Road Faculty, National University of Civil Engineering, Hanoi, Vietnam; Current, Doctoral Research Fellow, School of Civil Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China (Corresponding Author, E-mail: 13119006@bjtu.edu.cn)
**Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China (E-mail: bhan@bjtu.edu.cn)
***M.Sc., Transport Engineering Design Incorporation (TEDI), Hanoi 100901, Vietnam (E-mail: tuanngoc.4s@gmail.com)
1

Viet Hung Cu, Bing Han, and Tuan Ngoc Nguyen

damping properties of a cable which is controlled by a viscous

damper. Recently, a full-scale stay cable with a pair of viscous
dampers was experimented and analysed by Zhou et al. (2014).
In the previous studies, most authors used the asymptotic
solution to investigate vibrations of a cable-damper system in the
first few modes for damper location near the end of the cable.
In this paper, the oscillation parameters of hanged cableviscous damper system are investigated in detail through finding
the exact values of the complex eigenvalue. The effects of the
viscous damper parameters on the dynamic characteristics of the
cable are analysed. Further, the damping ratios of the cableviscous damper system calculated by the asymptotic formulas
are compared with the exact solutions. This parametric study
provides more insights into the dynamics of cable-viscous
damper system and so can be a tool for evaluating and selecting
optimal damper parameters.

2. Motion Equation and Complex Modal Analysis

The model of a simply supported hanged cable with an attached
viscous damper is shown in Fig. 1 with c as the viscous damper
cofficient. The bending stiffness and intrinsic mechanical damping of
the cable are small, therefore assuming their influences are
neglected.
The damper divides the cable into two unequal segments (l2 >
l1). The dynamic equation of hanged cable in plane motion is
expressed:
2

Main and Jones (2002a) where 01 = ( L ) T m is natural circular

frequency of the first mode.
Using Bernoulii method, solution of equation is written as
follows:
(2)

where = + j is dimensionless complex eigenvalue with

j = 1 , Xn is complex mode shape on the nth cable segment.
Substituting Eq. (2) into Eq. (1) with (.) = 0 and enforcing the
boundary conditions of zero displacement at the cable ends and
the continuity of displacement of cable at the damper location,
the complex mode shape can be expressed as follows:
sinh ( xn L )
Xn ( xn ) = d ------------------------------sinh ( ln L )

(3)

where d is amplitude at the damper.

The equilibrium equation at the damper can be written as
follows:
u
T --------1
x1
x

u
--------2
x2 x
=l
1

= c du
--------1

dt x
=l
2

(4)
1 = l1

Differentiating the assumed solution in Eqs. (2)-(3) and

substituting into Eq. (4) yields:
c
coth ( l1 L ) + coth ( l2 L ) + ----------- = 0
Tm

(5)

Substituting = + j into Eq. (5) yields:

un ( xn, t ) un ( xn, t )
- m ---------------------- = f ( t ) ( x1 l1 )
T ---------------------2
2
xn
t

un ( xn, ) = Xn ( xn )e

sinh( 2l2 L )
sinh( 2l1 L )
----------------------------------------------------------------------- + ------------------------------------------------------------------------cosh ( 2l1 L ) cos ( 2l1 L ) cosh ( 2l2 L ) cos( 2l2 L )
c
(6)
+ ----------- = 0
Tm

(1)

where T is tension in the cable, un(xn, t) is transverse deflection,

xn is coordinate along the cable chord axis in the nth segment, m is
mass per unit length, f(t) is damping force and (.) is the Dirac
delta function. A nondimensional time = 01t is introduced by

sin ( 2l1 L )cosh ( 2l2 L ) + sin ( 2l2 L )cosh ( 2l1 L )

sin ( 2 ) = 0

(7)

The expression Eq. (3) for the complex mode shapes can be
expanded explicitly in terms of the real and imaginary parts,
yielding the following expression:
Xn ( xn ) = An [ sinh ( xn L )cos ( xn L ) + jcosh ( xn L )sin ( xn L ) ]

(8)
where A n = d sinh( ln L )
After all the analysis, the solution of cable is found to be:
un ( xn, ) = An [ sinh ( xn L )cos ( xn L ) + jcosh ( xn L )sin ( xn L ) ]
[ cos ( ) + jsin ( ) ]e

(9)

By similarity with a single degree of freedom oscillator (Pacheco

et al., 1993), i is rewritten as:
2

i = i ( i + j 1 i )
Fig. 1. A Model of a Hanged Cable with an Attached Viscous
Damper

(10)

where i is modulus of the dimensional eigenvalue and i is

damping ratio.
The real and imaginary parts of i can be shown as below:

KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering

Optimal Parameters of Viscous Damper for Hanged Cables in Arch Bridges

2
i = Re ( i ) = ------0-i ( i ); i = Im ( i ) = ------0-i ( 1 i )
1
1

(11)

The modulus of the dimensional eigenvalue i and damping

ratio i can be computed as:
2

i = i + i 1
2

i = -----i2 + 1

(12)

(1 2 )

(13)

3. Properties of Hanged Cable-viscous Damper

System
The values of i and i determine the vibration characteristics
of the hanged cable-viscous damper system; thus solving nonlinear
system of Eqs. (6)-(7) is important in calculation of the damping
ratio, oscillation frequencies and mode shapes of the hanged
cable-visous damper system. The damping ratio depends on the
viscous damper coefficient c and the damper location l1/L.
Because c and l1/L are separate, it is possible to study the
behaviour of damping ratios corresponding to change of each c
and l1/L. For studying of cable hanger-viscous damper system, a
dimensionless damper parameter = c Tm is used.
The formulation of complex eigenvalue problem has been
used by most authors in order to study vibrations of a cable with
attached dampers; however, many authors used the asymptotic
solution to investigate vibrations of a cable-damper system in the
first few modes for damper locations near the ends of the cable.
In this paper, the effects of the viscous damper parameters such
as the damper location and the nondimensional parameter on the
dynamic characteristics of the hanged cable are studied in detail
by finding the exact values of the complex eigenvalue; thus the
restriction on the damper location and mode in the formulation is
resolved. When parameters of the cable-damper system are
specified, there are an infinite number of complex values
satisfying Eq. (5) corresponding to different modes. The
attachement of the damper to the cable actually adds one more
degree of freedom to the cable, making the dynamics of the
cable-damper system much different from the original pure
cable. From Eq. (9) can be seen that represents vibration
reduction and represents vibration. The nonlinear system of
Eqs. (6)-(7) is solved with support of the Matlab software.
3.1 Effects of Damper Location on the First Mode Damping Ratio
Effects of damper location l1/L on the first mode damping ratio
1 for different values of ( = 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 8; 10) are shown in
Fig. 2. For all the values of , the damping ratios 1 are maximum
at damper location of approximately l1/L = 0.33. However, with
this value of l1/L the distance between damper and anchorage is
too high (for example, l1 = 16.5 m for cable length of 50 m) for
installing and maintaining the damper. In fact, because of
geometric constraints, the dampers are often attached to the cable
Vol. 00, No. 0 / 000 0000

Fig. 2. First Mode Damping Ratio 1 Versus Damper Location l1/L

Fig. 3. Relation between First Mode Damping Ratio 1 and Nondimensional Damper Parameter

near the anchorage on the bridge deck. Fig. 2 also shows that
when damper is attached far from the cable end, viscous damper
coefficient increases but damping ratio decreases.
3.2 Effects of Viscous Damper Coefficient on the First
Mode Damping Ratio
Effects of nondimensional damper parameter = [0, 100] on
the first mode damping ratios 1 for different damper locations
(l1/L = 0.01; 0.02; 0.03; 0.04; 0.05; 0.06; 0.07; 0.08; 0.09; 0.10)
are shown in the Fig. 3. Firstly, the damping ratios increase when
increases. After 1 reaches a maximal value, the damping
ratios decrease when increases. Further, the effect of the
damper is higher when the relative location of the damper l1/L is
larger. The maximum values of the first damping ratios max
1
with different values of l1/L are shown in Table 1. From this table
can be seen that for each value of l1/L, the first damping ratios ratio
reaches a maximum value at the different corresponding values of
and the optimal value of decreases when l1/L increases. Table 1
also shows that ratio between max
and l1/L is in the range [0.505,
1
0.567], this means that the change of this ratio is not larger.
3.3 Effects of Viscous Damper Coefficient on Damping
Ratios in Different Vibration Modes
Effects of the nondimensional damper parameter = [0,100]

Viet Hung Cu, Bing Han, and Tuan Ngoc Nguyen

Table 1. The Maximum Values of the First Damping Ratios with Different Values of l1/L
l1/L

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.08

0.09

0.10

31.8

15.9

10.6

8.0

6.4

5.3

4.6

4.0

3.6

3.3

(%)

0.505

1.021

1.549

2.090

2.644

3.213

3.799

4.402

5.025

5.668

1 /(l1/L)

0.505

0.511

0.516

0.522

0.529

0.536

0.543

0.550

0.558

0.567

max

max

Fig. 4. Relation between Damping Ratio i and Nondimensional Damper Parameter with l1/L = 0.03: (a) Mode 1, 2, 3, (b) Mode 4, 5, 6, 7
Table 2. The Maximum Values of Damping Ratios with l1/L = 0.03
Mode ith

10.6

5.3

3.6

2.7

2.2

1.9

1.6

1.549

1.556

1.568

1.586

1.609

1.639

1.676

0.516 0.517

0.519

0.526

0.533

0.545

0.559

max
i

max
i

(%)

/(l1/L)

on the damping ratios with l1/L = 0.03 are shown in Fig. 4. It

shows that for the same type of viscous damper and the same
damper location, the damping ratios corresponding to different
vibration modes are different. Maximum values of damping ratios
corresponding to different modes are not at the same value of .
Table 2 shows the maximum values of damping ratios max
i

Fig. 5. Relation between i 1 and Nondimensional Damper Parameter ; (a) Mode 1 and l1/L = 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, (b) Mode 1, 2, 3 and
l1/L = 0.03

Fig. 6. Relation between Damping Ratio i and i 1 : (a) Mode 1 and l1/L = 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, (b) Mode 1, 2, 3 and l1/L = 0.03

KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering

Optimal Parameters of Viscous Damper for Hanged Cables in Arch Bridges

Fig. 7. Comparison of Damping Ratios i which are Calculated by Asymptotic Formula with Exact Solution: (a) Mode 1, 2, 3 and l1/L =
0.03, (b) Mode 1 and l1/L = 0.05, 0.10

when damper is installed at l1/L = 0.03.

3.4 Changes of the Oscillation Parameters of Hanged
Cables Due to Attached Viscous Damper
The relations between i 01 and are shown in Fig. 5, and
the relations between i and i 01 are shown in Fig. 6. These
figures show that the damper perturbs the frequencies of hanged
cable-viscous damper system; however if damper location is
near the end of hanged cable, the perturbation is minimal.
Furthermore, the higher relative mode is associated with the
higher perturbation of the damper.

4. Asymptotic Formulas

Equation (5) can be rewritten as:

2

sinh ( l1 L )
tanh ( ) = ---------------------------------------------
1 + ---- sinh( 2l1 L )
2

The equation Eq. (17) makes it easy to determine the value of

damping ratio, it also consistent with previous studies on a taut
cable (Krenk, 2000; Main and Jones, 2002a).
The accuracy of the damping ratios that are calculated by
asymptotic formula Eq. (17) can be verified by comparing them
with the exact solution. The comparisons are shown in Fig. 7,
where the damping ratios of the first three modes are plotted
versus for l1/L = 0.03 and the damping ratios of the first mode
corresponding to l1/L of 0.05 and 0.10 are also plotted versus .
These figures show that when l1/L is small, the approximate
damping ratios are slightly smaller than the exact values, but this
difference is larger when l1/L is large.
For a given location l1/L of the damper the optimal value of
is obtained from the condition l = 0 leading to the value
opt
= 1 ( il1 L ) and asymptotic of maximum damping ratios
can be given opt 0.5l1 L (Krenk, 2000); however, the solution
is asymptotically valid for small il1 L . Table 2 shows that the
difference between asymptotic and exact of maximum damping
ratios when damper is attached at l1/L = 0.03 (for example
opt
opt
1 = 0.516l1 L and 5 = 0.533l1 L ). For better approximation,
based on the above study on the effects of viscous damper
coefficient on the first mode damping ratio, the maximum
damping ratio max
and the optimal value of corresponding to
1
a given damper location l1/L should be as follows:

(14)

The above studies show that if the damper is attached near the
end of hanged cable, the perturbation in the frequencies of
hanged cable is very small. Thus, for the first few vibration
modes of the hanged cable which are of interest, the i of an
individual mode i can be assumed to be a small perturbation
from solution of a hanged cable without damper. The tangent can
be approximated by:

max

tanh ( i ) i j ( i ) ; sinh ( i l1 L ) j ( il 1 L );
1
--- sinh ( 2i l1 L ) j ( il1 L )
2

(15)

Substituting Eq. (15) into Eq. (14) yields the asymptotic

formula of the solution i:
2

i ( l1 L )
-2 + j [i + 2 2 ( il1 L )3 ]
i = --------------------------------1 + ( il1 L )

(16)

The damping ratio i can be computed from following approximate formula:

i
i ------i -----------------------------------------i ( i )2 + 1 ( l 1 L )2
Vol. 00, No. 0 / 000 0000

(17)

1 1.685 ( l 1 L ) + 0.495 ( l 1 L ) + 0.5 ( l1 L ) at

opt
0.99
0.332 ( l1 L )

(18)

5. Example of the Design of Viscous Damper for

Hanged Cables of DongTru main bridge
The DongTru Bridge is located at the NH5 of Vietnam; the
main bridge is a concrete filled steel tubular tied arch bridge with
three consecutive spans (in an arrangement of 80 m+120 m+80 m).
The suspenders are vertically arranged with a spacing of 5 m,
anchored on the main arch rib and attached to the floor system.
Each suspender consists of two hanged cables with closely
spacing of 0.4 m; the hanged cable is composed of 55 prestressed steel wires sprayed with epoxy with a wire diameter of
7 mm, as shown in Fig. 9. Hanged cables mass per unit length is

Viet Hung Cu, Bing Han, and Tuan Ngoc Nguyen

Table 3. Oscillation Parameters of Hanged Cable without Damper,

Requirement of Minimum Values of Damping Ratio
0

min

Mode ith

i (rad/s)

f i (Hz)

Si

1
2
3
4
5

21.068
42.136
63.204
84.272
105.340

3.353
6.706
10.059
13.412
16.765

55.59
13.90
6.18
3.47
2.22

req

(%)

1.91
0.48
0.21
0.12
0.08

An approximate equation for the minimum wind velocity UCRIT

at which instability can be expected due to the wake galloping
effects is given below (PTI, 2001):

Fig. 8. Picture of DongTru Main Bridge

UCRIT = CfD Sc

(20)

where f is natural frequency; C is a constant, for closely spaced

cables (2D to 6D spacing) C has an approximate value of 25.
The minimum damping ratio at which instability can be
expected due to the wake galloping effects is given as:
min

Fig. 9. Cross Sectional of Hanged Cable

18.6 kg/m; cover diameter is 0.072 m. Wind speed of 45 m/s is

accepted to design galloping stability of hanged cables; air
density is 1.23 kg/m3. In this paper, the viscous damper is
designed in detail for the longest hanged cable with length of
cable L = 31.5 m and tension in the cable T = 830 KN.
Wake galloping has been observed and reported on hangers of
suspension or arch bridges in worldwide bridge engineering. The
excessive vibration may cause collision of two hangers and
fatigue of the outer strands of hanged cables at their end clamps.
Wake galloping is occurred when two cables are either closely at
high wind speeds and leads to large amplitude oscillations
(Kumarasena et al., 2007). The Scruton number is an important
parameter with regard to wake galloping effects, it is given as:
Sc = m D

(19)

where m is mass per unit length; is damping ratio; is air

density; D is hanged cable diameter.

UCRIT 2
= -------------- Cf i m

(21)

Oscillation parameters of this hanged cable without damper and

requirement of minimum damping ratio are shown in Table 3.
In the first model, the damping ratio 1 = 2% is chosen for
design of the viscous damper. To achieve this, two options are
considered. In option 1, damper location is determined to obtain
the optimal value of (corresponding to maximum value of the
first model damping). In option 2, damper location is given and
from that a proper value of can be calculated. The two options
are detailed as follows.
5.1 Option 1
To achieve the first mode damping ratio 1 = 2%, from Eq. (18)
the value of l1/L = 0.03836 (l1 = 1.208 m) and value of opt 8.38
were calculated. The oscillation parameters of hanged cableviscous damper system in this case are shown in Table 4.
5.2 Option 2
For requirement of viscous damper location at l1/L = 0.05 (l1 =
1.575 m; l2 = 29.925 m), Fig. 10 shows that to the first mode
damping ratio 1 = 2% can be achieved with two values of
(3.042 and 13.44) which correspond to two different values of

Table 4. Oscillation Parameters of Hanged Cable-viscous Damper System with = 8.38 (c = 32926 kg.s/m)
Mode ith
1
2
3
4
5

Asymptotic
Solution

Exact Solution
0
1

-0.020397
-0.032556
-0.036392
-0.037926
-0.038671

1.019698
2.064250
3.108486
4.151186
5.192996

1.0199
2.0645
3.1087
4.1514
5.1931
6

i (%)

i (%)

2.000
1.577
1.171
0.914
0.745

1.918
1.525
1.142
0.895
0.731

Difference
(%)
4.10
3.27
2.47
2.06
1.83

KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering

Optimal Parameters of Viscous Damper for Hanged Cables in Arch Bridges

Fig. 10. Relation between Damping Ratio i and Nondimensional

Damper Parameter at l1/L = 0.05: Mode 1, 5

damper cofficient c. Studying modal vibration of hanged cableviscous damper system corresponding to the two values of ,
results are shown in Table 5 and Table 6. It is seen that although
the damper has larger viscous damper coefficient, the next mode
damping ratios decrease rapidly. The cable vibration is a combination
of the different vibration modes. The optimal viscous damper
can only be selected for each mode of vibration. However, given
the fact that the contribution of the first few modes is essential,
the vibration amplitude of higher modes often declines very fast.
Therefore, study to reduce the cable vibration corresponding to
the first few modes is very important.

Fig. 11. Three First Mode Shape of Hanged Cable with an Attached
Viscous Damper at l1/L = 0.05

Fig. 12. Free Vibrations of Hanged Cable in the Case Without

Damper and With Damper

6. Conclusions
This paper investigated general dynamic characteristics of
hanged cable-viscous damper system. Effects of different parameters
on the vibration reduction were analyzed in detail using an
analytical formulation of the complex eigenvalue problem. The
relations between the damping ratio and location of the damper

(l1/L), nondimensional damper parameter () were studied and

plotted. Further, asymptotic formulas were proposed for convenience
in calculation of damping ratios of the hanged cable-viscous
damper system and the accuracy of the damping ratios calculated
by the asymptotic formulas was also compared with the exact

Table 5. Oscillation Parameters of Hanged Cable-viscous Damper System with = 3.042 (c = 11952 kg.s/m)
Asymptotic
Solution

Exact Solution

Mode ith
1
2
3
4
5

0
1

-0.020180
-0.054745
-0.079853
-0.094913
-0.103797

1.008715
2.047598
3.104673
4.166604
5.228768

1.009
2.048
3.106
4.168
5.230

i (%)

i (%)

2.000
2.673
2.571
2.277
1.985

1.945
2.497
2.346
2.054
1.781

Difference
(%)
2.75
6.56
8.75
9.82
10.27

Table 6. Oscillation Parameters of Hanged Cable-viscous Damper System with = 13.44 (c = 52807 kg.s/m)
Mode ith
1
2
3
4
5
Vol. 00, No. 0 / 000 0000

Asymptotic
Solution

Exact Solution
0
1

-0.020871
-0.023899
-0.024538
-0.024767
-0.024872

1.043126
2.100038
3.154500
4.208146
5.261446

1.043
2.100
3.155
4.208
5.262
7

i (%)

i (%)

2.000
1.138
0.778
0.589
0.473

1.934
1.121
0.770
0.584
0.469

Difference
(%)
3.30
1.46
0.98
0.79
0.69

Viet Hung Cu, Bing Han, and Tuan Ngoc Nguyen

solutions. The following conclusions can be drawn:

1. The first damping ratio (1) varies with damper location (l1/
L) and it is maximum at damper location of approximately
l1/L = 0.33 with all the values of . In fact, the viscous
dampers are often attached to the cable near the top of bridge
deck where l1/L is generally below 0.1. When a damper is
installed at such a location, the first damping ratios increase
when l1/L increases. For each value of l1/L, the first damping
ratios ratio reaches a maximum value at the different corresponding values of . The optimal value of decreases
when l1/L increases.
2. The viscous damper is effective for more modes at the same
time; however, with the same type of viscous damper and
the same damper location, the damping ratios corresponding
to different vibration modes are different. The optimal viscous damper can only be selected for each mode of vibration. Given the fact that the contribution of the first few
modes is more important, the vibration amplitude of higher
modes often declines very fast.
3. When a viscous damper is attached to a cable, it perturbs the
frequencies of the cable; but if the damper is near the end of
the cable, perturbation is very small.
4. In designing a damper for cable vibration reduction, it is
necessary to determine the levels of supplemental damping
provided in the first several modes of vibration for different
values of the damper parameters and different damper locations. Due to geometric constraints, the dampers are often
attached to the cable near the anchorages; thus, the approximate formulas Eq. (17) and Eq. (18) are useful for calculation of the damping ratio.
The results of this study provide more insights into the dynamics
of the cable and viscous damper system. Based on results of this
study, one can choose the optimal parameters of the viscous
damper for a given hanged cable.

Acknowledgments
Acknowledgement is also given to Transport Engineering
Design Incorporation (TEDI in Vietnam) for permission to use
the data of DongTru Bridge.

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