• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.404-415
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• 2000

This paper describes several performances and nondestructive inspection for deterioration due to forest fires in overhead transmission lines. After discussing corrosion mechanism such as atmospheric and galvanic corrosion for aged ACSR conductors and its detection for them are presented. Through impedance analysis of a solenoid coil, it is shown that the eddy current sensor may be available to inspect severe fault or local corrosion. As the solenoid coil changes its impedance when the test conductor is inserted into the coil, it can be possible to measure deterioration degree caused by forest fires. Tensile strength, extension rate and sensor impedance are tested for some samples degraded by artificial fire. As increasing blazed period to some extent, the strength of aluminum strand begins to be reduced remarkably, while galvanized steel strand holds the similar strength to the initial value, despite of appearing a little loss of zinc layer. In general, it is shown that the sensor impedance would be increased while the tension load of conductor is reduced and the extension rate is contrarily increased. Therefore, the sensor output could exhibit the changes of mechanical performances, and would be used to detect such deterioration caused by forest fire in ACSR conductors built on the ridge of mountains. Finally, it was verified that the solenoid coil could be applicable to obtain any crucial inform for serious deterioration due to forest fires.