Response Of Transmission Towers Research Articles

Study on Wind Loads of Different Height Transmission Towers under Downbursts with Different Parameters

Disaster investigation results have shown that most wind-induced damage to transmission towers is related to downbursts. To clarify the effects of downbursts’ parameters on transmission towers with different heights, studies were conducted on five transmission towers with different diameters under static and moving downburst wind conditions. As a comparison, the responses of the towers under normal wind conditions were studied. The results showed that the effect of downbursts on the response of the transmission tower increased with the distance between the downburst center and the tower (r) when r < 1.0 Djet (Djet is the jet diameter of downburst) and then decreased when r > 1.0 Djet. The effects of jet diameter on the response of transmission towers with different tower heights were similar. As the jet diameter increased, the response of the tower continued growing until it reached a peak value and then steadily decreased soon thereafter. When the tower height was below 81.5 m, the wind load of the downburst on the transmission tower was significantly greater than that of the normal wind. As the tower height increased, the ratio of the transmission tower’s response under the two types of wind fields rapidly declined to about 0.91–1.01.

Effect of Raindrop Size Distribution on Rain Load and Its Mechanism in Analysis of Transmission Towers

Rain load acting on a transmission tower is large enough to receive attention according to previous studies and, therefore, a parametric analysis is necessary to understand its mechanism. In this paper, the effects of different raindrop size distributions on both rain pressure and tower response are studied. First, a theoretical method is proposed to estimate the shape parameters of the gamma raindrop size distribution based on the conservation of rain intensity. The influence of raindrop spectrum on rain pressure in free wind field is then investigated. The results reveal that raindrop spectrum has great effect on the rain pressure distribution and its time interval has a large impact on the total rain pressure. In addition, the time interval has greater influence than the spectrum when the rain intensity is constant. At last, six different raindrop spectra are employed to simulate the tower response induced by wind and rain loads, of which the results indicate that the raindrop spectrum has a significant effect on the tower response. The maximum increasing percentage of rain load relative to wind load can reach up to 13.7%, indicating that the influence of rain load is quite remarkable and should be considered in analyzing the response of transmission towers.

Stability and Dynamic Analyses of Transmission Tower-Line Systems Subjected to Conductor Breaking

Ice loads exerted on the transmission line can increase the probability of conductor breaking, which will lead to the stability failure of transmission towers. In this paper, a transmission tower-line system is established for two towers and three span lines. Then the nonlinear static stability analysis and nonlinear dynamic stability analysis induced by the conductor breaking are carried out to obtain the load versus displacement curves, while studying the failure modes of the transmission tower-line system. Moreover, the ice load and initial eccentricity are considered in the numerical simulation. In addition, a parametric analysis is performed to investigate the influence of span, insulator length and initial tension force on the stability failure of the system. The results show that the dynamic instability will occur earlier than the static instability due to the dynamic impact effect and conductor breaking with ice loads can lead to the progressive collapse of the transmission tower-line system. Finally, the span length has the greatest effect on the response of transmission tower caused by conductor breaking.

Behaviour of transmission line conductors under tornado wind

Electricity is transmitted by transmission lines from the source of production to the distribution system and then to the end users. Failure of a transmission line can lead to devastating economic losses and to negative social consequences resulting from the interruption of electricity. A comprehensive in-house numerical model that combines the data of computational fluid dynamic simulations of tornado wind fields with three dimensional nonlinear structural analysis modelling of the transmission lines (conductors and ground-wire) is used in the current study. Many codes of practice recommend neglecting the tornado forces acting on the conductors and ground-wires because of the complexity in predicting the conductors' response to such loads. As such, real transmission line systems are numerically simulated and then analyzed with and without the inclusion of the lines to assess the effect of tornado loads acting on conductors on the overall response of transmission towers. In addition, the behaviour of the conductors under the most critical tornado configuration is described. The sensitivity of the lines' behaviour to the magnitude of tornado loading, the level of initial sag, the insulator's length, and lines self-weight is investigated. Based on the current study results, a recommendation is made to consider conductors and ground-wires in the analysis and design of transmission towers under the effect of tornado wind loads.

Nonlinear Seismic Behavior of Different Boundary Conditions of Transmission Line Systems under Earthquake Loading

Nonlinear seismic behaviors of different boundary conditions of transmission line system under earthquake loading are investigated in this paper. The transmission lines are modeled by cable element accounting for the nonlinearity of the cable. For the suspension type, three towers and two span lines with spring model (Model 1) and three towers and four span lines’ model (Model 2) are established, respectively. For the tension type, three towers and two span lines’ model (Model 3) and three towers and four span lines’ model (Model 4) are created, respectively. The frequencies of the transmission towers and transmission lines of the suspension type and tension type are calculated, respectively. The responses of the suspension type and tension type are investigated using nonlinear time history analysis method, respectively. The results show that the responses of the transmission tower and transmission line of the two models of the suspension type are slightly different. However, the responses of transmission tower and transmission line of the two models of the tension type are significantly different. Therefore, in order to obtain accurate results, a reasonable model should be considered. The results could provide a reference for the seismic analysis of the transmission tower-line system.

Influence of Pendulum on Vibration Response of Transmission Tower under Wind Load

In order to study the dynamic response of transmission tower equipped with a pendulum damper induced by wind load, a simulation, considering wind load acting on pendulum, is implemented. Deducing the vibration equation of transmission tower-pendulum system induced by wind and utilizing harmony superposition method and Davenport power spectra to simulate fluctuating wind load, time history analysis based on Newmark β step-by-step integration method is conducted to study the influence on displacements of pendulum and tower tip in the two conditions of considering and unconsidering wind load acting on pendulum damper. It can be found that pendulum displacement would be underestimated, and tip displacement would be overestimated if we dont consider wind load acting on pendulum.

Tower modelling for lightning surge analysis using Electro-Magnetic Transients Program

For economical insulation co-ordination in transmission and substation equipment, it is necessary to accurately predict the lightning surge overvoltage that occurs in an electric power system. The lightning surge response of transmission towers is one of the main factors that influences the magnitude and the waveshape of the surge arriving at a substation. The paper presents a tower model, based on a finite-difference transmission-line model, that can be used with EMTP. Computation results obtained, for a typical double-circuit 500 kV tower, are in good agreement with field test measurements.

Lightning Surge Response of Transmission Towers

Lightning Surge Response of Transmission Towers

Surge response of transmission towers

The lightning performance of overhead transmission lines is related to the surge impedance and wave propagation time of the line towers. Theoretical and experimental studies show that present models for the tower response are not adequate. New theoretical models for tower surge impedance are presented and supported with experiments.