Research on the control of vortex-induced vibration of stay cable by tuned mass damper-inerter with collisions

A novel pounding tuned mass damper-inerter (PTMDI) is proposed to control the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of stay cables. This device incorporates a nonlinear impact mechanism consisting of the viscoelastic material impact boundary into the conventional tuned mass-damper-inerter (TMDI). It enhances the mass amplification effect of the inerter through acceleration mutation during the collisions, while simultaneously reducing the device’s size. The PTMDI solves the installation limitation of traditional inerter mass dampers, which require connection at one end, making the arrangement more flexible. The motion equation of the stay cable-PTMDI system under VIV is established, and vibration characteristics and dynamic responses of the cable are systematically analyzed. The effectiveness of the collision mechanism and dynamic responses results in this paper are verified through experimental tests and numerical simulations. To improve the PTMDI’s damping effect, the influence and optimization of the inertial coefficient and collision parameters are explored, and a method for obtaining the optimal parameters is given. Example analysis shows that the proposed unoptimized PTMDI can significantly reduce the single-mode VIV responses, but its effectiveness is limited for multi-mode VIV. The optimized PTMDI configuration is more effective than the conventional damper for both single-mode and multi-mode VIV, with the impact mechanism also enhancing system robustness.