Lightning strength of wood in power transmission structures

Abstract

ALTHOUGH wood has been known to possess the excellent properties of mechanical strength in combination with insulation strength almost since the beginning of the electrical art, its real lightning strength was not generally appreciated until within comparatively recent years. It is true that it was rather extensively used in the past to supply power frequency insulation in treated form alone or with transil oil. For example, wood either solid or laminated has been employed for years in operating rods on oil circuit breakers and in terminal and spacing blocks in transformers. The 60-cycle strength of wood under those conditions has been studied, and although the results were not made available generally, the strength factors had been known with considerable preciseness for some time. In these applications, however, the 60-cycle (i.e., power frequency) strength of wood has been of paramount interest, and the lightning or impulse insulation value of secondary interest, either because the latter was considered comparatively unimportant or because the impulse strength furnished by other insulating members or mediums in the structure was considered sufficient.