Stockbridge dampers are widely used to mitigate the vibrations of cable-stayed bridges
and of many other cable-suspended or cable structures exposed to the action of pedestrians,
traffic or wind load. Within the current research work, one of the most effective
and likely used damper types, the Stockbridge damper, was investigated to support
its design and application within the daily engineering praxis. The Stockbridge damper
has a relatively simple structural layout, which ensures its modular design allows
it to easily adapt the damper to cables having different dynamic properties (eigenfrequencies,
mass, etc.). This paper focuses on two main research areas: (i) to understand the
static and dynamic behaviour of the damper and the stay cable interaction to investigate
the effectiveness of its damping; (ii) to study the sensitivity of the natural frequencies
of the damper to the design parameters. The final aim of the research is to develop
a simple design method that is easy to apply in engineering practice and allows the
efficient adaptation of the Stockbridge damper to different cable-stayed bridges.
Key findings include the recommendation to position the damper at approximately 20%
of the cable length for optimal attenuation, the importance of detuning to maintain
effectiveness under varying cable forces, and the observation that increasing the
damper mass improves efficiency, particularly for detuned elements.