Development of a Self-Powered Magnetorheological Damper System for Cable Vibration Control

A new self-powered magnetorheological (MR) damper control system was developed to mitigate cable vibration. The power source of the MR damper is directly harvested from vibration energy through a rotary permanent magnet direct current (DC) generator. The generator itself can also serve as an electromagnetic damper. The proposed smart passive system also incorporates a roller chain and sprocket, transforming the linear motion of the cable into the rotational motion of the DC generator. The vibration mitigation performance of the presented self-powered MR damper system was evaluated by model tests with a 21.6 m long cable. A series of free vibration tests of the cable with a passively operated MR damper with constant voltage, an electromagnetic damper alone, and a self-powered MR damper system were performed. Finally, the vibration control mechanisms of the self-powered MR damper system were investigated. The experimental results indicate that the supplemental modal damping ratios of the cable in the first four modes can be significantly enhanced by the self-powered MR damper system, demonstrating the feasibility and effectiveness of the new smart passive system. The results also show that both the self-powered MR damper and the generator are quite similar to a combination of a traditional linear viscous damper and a negative stiffness device, and the negative stiffness can enhance the mitigation efficiency against cable vibration.