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The developments of bridge construction techniques and the improvements of high strengh materials have made the modern bridges designed and built towards longer spans with more slender sections. Because these types of bridges are more flexible than the other types of bridges, they are more susceptible to wind excitation. To strengthen the weakness of these types of bridges, some devices must be used to control the wind effects. Among these devices, tuned mass dampers have been installed in some existed bridges, and their performance is proven to be effective against wind-induced vibrations. In the wind-induced buffeting problems of the long-span bridges, the vertical and torsional displacements are always the major concerns for the bridge engineers. However, the traditional tuned mass dampers are designed to reduce dynamic response in one direction only. To achieve the goal of suppressing both the vertical and torsional response, the 2 D. O. F. model, with two frequencies that are tuned at the effective frequencies of the first vertical and torsional modes of the bridge, is proposed. The aerodynamic coupling is taken into account for the formulation of the bridge-TMD system. Therefore, this model is specially applicable for those bridges in which mode coupling is significant. A parametric study is performed to investigate the buffeting response reduction and the increase of the flutter velocity. Based on this parametric analysis, the procedures of the TMD design for the wind-exeited bridges are then proposed. The influence of the aerodynamic coupling on the TMD design is also addressed. The results show that the propposed TMD is at least as effective as the usual TMD on suppressing buffeting respponse, and it appreciably raises the stability of the bridge either with the type of stalled or coupled flutter.
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