Effects of rigid bus conductors on seismic fragility of electrical substation equipment

Abstract

The present paper studies the impact of dynamic interaction between high-voltage substation equipment on the response and vulnerability of substation equipment. The 3D numerical model is developed for four types of vulnerable equipment in the both unconnected and connected conditions. The bus slider-rigid bus assembly is utilized to establish the connection between the equipment. The incremental dynamic analysis is carried out in the developed systems to produce the fragility function for each equipment. Also, the Monte Carlo approach is employed to evaluate the accuracy of the generated functions. It is concluded that the incorporation of connection parts in the model can significantly alter the fragility of equipment and the relative performance of vulnerable equipment. Moreover, it is found that when more than two equipment are connected, the effect of indirectly connected equipment can be neglected if the contribution of higher modes to its response is small. The fragility functions for which the interaction effects are accounted can be used to reliably assess the seismic risk of substations.