Practical Damping Identification of FAST Cable Suspension

Abstract

FAST focus cabin is suspended and driven by 6 parallel large span cables. Low stiffness of cables makes the cabin sensitive to disturbance and difficult to control. Structural damping then becomes a key factor that can improve control ability. Therefore, a reasonable damping estimation is important for system design. In this paper, a practical damping identification method is developed based on Ibrahim-time-domain algorithm. The method shows satisfied performance on accuracy and reliability in simulation test and is utilized in vibration experiments to identify damping ratios of both single cable model and FAST 3 m scale cable suspension model. Finally, a preliminary analysis of the damping properties is given out based on the results of identification.