Dynamic analysis of power transmission towers under random wind loading

• Grant number: 06/01903-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2006
• End date: December 31, 2007
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Civil Engineering - Structural Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Reyolando Manoel Lopes Rebello da Fonseca Brasil
• Grantee: Rodrigo Nunes de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Escola Politécnica (EP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Due to the great geographic dimensions of Brazil, and to the great amount of Electrical Transmission Lines (LT), totalizing thousand of kilometers in the country, one strong concern of the companies energy concessionaires respects the state of maintenance of the structures of the LT's (currently exists a special concern with the lines that already present aging signals, due to a long period of operation) and the design of new towers. The present research project approaches the structural analysis of electrical transmission towers considering the dynamic and random wind load applied to these structures.We intended to create a computational model of a transmission tower considering mainly the dynamic and random nature of the wind effect, with the aid of existing Power Spectra, as well as possible geometric and material non linearity. Next, comparison will be made between the responses to the dynamic and random loads and the static loads given by National Building Codes which have been used as the only consideration in the design of the oldest towers.