Numerical simulation of unsteady galloping of two-dimensional iced transmission line with comparison to conventional quasi-steady analysis

Abstract

Most of the previous works on numerical analysis of galloping of transmission lines are generally based on the quasi-steady theory. However, some wind tunnel tests of the rectangular section or hangers of suspension bridges have shown that the galloping phenomenon has a strong unsteady characteristic and the test results are quite different from the quasi-steady calculation results. Therefore, it is necessary to check the applicability of the quasi-static theory in galloping analysis of the ice-covered transmission line. Although some limited unsteady simulation researches have been conducted on the variation of parameters such as aerodynamic damping, aerodynamic coefficients with wind speed or wind attack angle, there is a need to investigate the numerical simulation of unsteady galloping of two-dimensional iced transmission line with comparison to wind tunnel test results. In this paper, it is proposed to conduct a two dimensional (2-D) unsteady numerical analysis of ice-covered transmission line galloping. First, wind tunnel tests of a typical crescent-shapes iced conductor are conducted firstly to check the subsequent quasi-steady and unsteady numerical analysis results. Then, a numerical simulation model consistent with the aeroelastic model in the wind tunnel test is established. The weak coupling methodology is used to consider the fluid-structure interaction in investigating a two-dimension numerical simulation of unsteady galloping of the iced conductor. First, the flow field is simulated to obtain the pressure and velocity distribution of the flow field. The fluid action on the iced conduct at the coupling interface is treated as an external load to the conductor. Then, the movement of the conduct is analyzed separately. The software ANSYS FLUENT is employed and redeveloped to numerically analyze the model responses based on fluid-structure interaction theory. The numerical simulation results of unsteady galloping of the iced conduct are compared with the measured responses of wind tunnel tests and the numerical results by the conventional quasi-steady theory, respectively.