Experimental study on a cable-stayed bridge isolated with the combination of elastoplastic cables and fluid viscous dampers in the transverse direction

It is usually challenging to design an effective transverse isolation strategy that needs both large restoring force and large deformation capacity for cable-stayed bridges to meet the requirements under regular operation and earthquakes. The authors proposed a novel transverse isolation device that combines elastoplastic cables and fluid viscous dampers (FVDs) to address this challenge. The elastoplastic cables are adopted to control the relative displacements at the girder-pylon connections in the transverse direction under both regular operation and earthquakes. FVDs are responsible for dissipating input seismic energy. To further validate the effectiveness of the proposed isolation system under both far and near-fault ground motions, shake table tests were conducted for a cable-stayed bridge with a scale ratio of 1/20. Details of the scaled model for the isolated and fixed systems, including dimensions of the components, additional mass arrangement, instrumentations, and boundary conditions, are briefly described. Seismic responses are recorded for each test case, such as accelerations and displacements of the pylons and girder, hysteretic responses of the combined devices, and strain responses of the pylon rebars. The experimental results indicate that the transverse boundary conditions have significant effects on the seismic responses of the girder, and the high-mode content of ground motions mainly dominates the seismic responses of the pylons. In addition, the isolated system effectively reduces the seismic responses at the bottom of the pylons, and the effectiveness of the isolation is becoming more evident with an increase in the PGA of the ground motions. •The transverse girder-pylon connections significantly affect the seismic responses of the girder and the lower part of the pylons.•In general, the isolated system effectively reduces the seismic responses to the pylons, and the seismic reduction effects are becoming more evident with the increase in the intensity of the ground motions.