Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Axially Preloaded Carbon Fiber Cable Vibration

Abstract

For structures deployed in space using cables in which vibration damping is critical for structural stability, the understanding of cable damping is particularly significant to the structural performance. This paper describes an experimental setup for the measurement of cable vibration damping under varying cable tensile force, length, and configuration. The damping is determined by the half-power bandwidth method and the logarithmic decrement method. The testing results showed that the cable damping is related to cable tension, length, and configuration. A finite-element model is presented to simulate cable vibration and cable damping. The natural frequencies of the tested cables are determined by spectral analysis and agree well with those of finite-element simulation and theoretical analysis. The time history responses recorded by the accelerometers agree well with those from the finite-element simulation, which demonstrates that selected elements are capable of modeling the dynamic response of cables, and that the Rayleigh damping is adequate for modeling the damping of carbon fiber cables.