Self‐Powered Intelligent Damper Integrated Triboelectric‐Electromagnetic Hybrid Unit for Vibration In Situ Monitoring of Stay Cables

Abstract Monitoring and controlling the vibration of bridge cables can maintain the health of the bridge structure and prolong the service life. This work proposes a novel self‐powered intelligent damper (SID) integrated triboelectric‐electromagnetic hybrid unit for vibration in situ monitoring of stay cables. Among them, the sensing function of the SID is realized by an arched membrane triboelectric nanogenerator (AM‐TENG), and the energy harvesting is realized by a three‐phase electromagnetic generator (TP‐EMG). The working principle and performance are investigated. Rotating and linear experimental platforms are built to verify the SID's low‐frequency (0.25–1.50 Hz) performance, including sensing, power generation, and vibration reduction. The experimental result indicates that the fitting vibration speed coefficient of the bridge cable with the AM‐TENG signal frequency is 0.990. In addition, the TP‐EMG achieves a peak power of 1.21 W. At 0.1 A power supply, the SID can output a damping force of 50 N. Finally, an experimental system is constructed to verify the viability of the SID in bridge cable vibration monitoring and vibration reduction. This work provides a feasible solution for further optimizing the bridge structure health monitoring and maintenance system.