Practical Formula for Cable Tension Estimation by Vibration Method

Abstract

The tension force of cables must be measured accurately during construction and maintenance stages for cable-supported bridge systems. On the basis of the transverse vibration equation of a cable and by using a curve-fitting technique to replace the numerical iterative process, a practical formula to estimate the cable tension is proposed in a simply explicit form, in which the bending stiffness of the cable is included, and the sag effect is neglected for simplicity by using the frequencies relative to antisymmetric or higher vibration modes of the cable. The capability of this formulation is verified through comparison with available experimental results and finite-element solutions, which indicate that the formula developed in this paper is sufficiently accurate and can be conveniently applied to field measurement for cable-supported bridge systems.