• Wind and Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.193-208
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• 2008

This paper focuses on assessing the failure of one of the transmission towers that collapsed in Winnipeg, Canada, as a result of a microburst event. The study is conducted using a fluid-structure numerical model that was developed in-house. A major challenge in microburst-related problems is that the forces acting on a structure vary with the microburst parameters including the descending jet velocity, the diameter of the event and the relative location between the structure and the jet. The numerical model, which combines wind field data for microbursts together with a non-linear finite element formulation, is capable of predicting the progressive failure of a tower that initiates after one of its member reaches its capacity. The model is employed first to determine the microburst parameters that are likely to initiate failure of a number of critical members of the tower. Progressive failure analysis of the tower is then conducted by applying the loads associated with those critical configurations. The analysis predicts a collapse of the conductors cross-arm under a microburst reference velocity that is almost equal to the corresponding value for normal wind load that was used in the design of the structure. A similarity between the predicted modes of failure and the post event field observations was shown.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.63-66
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• 2018

Lattice towers and tubular steel poles have been commonly used for electrical power transmission in Korea as well as the other countries. They are durable, structurally stable, simple and can easily be constructed in limited spaces. However, residents are opposed to construct transmission lattice towers in their areas because they are not visually attractive, and electrical field occur at the transmission lines. Underground transmissions have been used instead of the traditional towers to resolve these problems, however they are not cost effective to construct and run. Therefore, we have developed compact towers that are more attractive, well blend into the surrounding environment and much more economical than underground transmissions. This paper shows the design of a compact towers with insulation arm, in order to reduce the height of tower and the separation between phases. The compact tower can be installed in a narrow right-of-way. Insulation arms are easily applied to lattice and steel tubular towers instead of steel arms. Compact towers with insulation arm are also considered as a solution to have public acceptance or to create a familiar atmosphere among towers and people. Compact tower compared with a conventional tower, insulation arms reduces the width and height of the tower by 20% and 15% respectively.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.641-652
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• 2007

In this paper, a half-scaled substructure test was performed to evaluate the buckling and structural safety of an existing transmission tower subjected to wind load. A loading scheme was devised to reproduce the dead and wind loads of a prototype transmission tower, which uses a triangular jig that is mounted on the reduced model to which the similarity law of a half length was applied. As a result of the preliminary numerical analysis carried out to evaluate the stability of a specimen for the design load, is was confirmed that the calculated axial forces of tower leg members were distributed to $80{\sim}90%$ of an admissible buckling load. When the substructured transmission tower was loaded by 270% of its maximum admissible buckling load, it was failed due to the local buckling that is occurred in joints with weak constraints for out-of-plane behavior of leg members. By inspection of load-displacement curves, displacements and strains of members, it is considered that this local buckling was due to additional eccentric force by unbalanced deformation because the time that is reached to yielding stress due to the bending moment is different at each point of a same section.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.5-18
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• 2013

The differential settlement between the foundations causes the critical damage on the transmission tower constructed in soft ground. Connected-pile foundation for transmission tower structures is an option to prevent the differential settlement. It consists of main foundations and connection beams that are placed between the individual foundations at each corner of tower. In this study, 24 model pile load tests were conducted at a construction site in jeonlabuk-do to investigate the effects of the connection beams on transmission tower foundation. In model tests, various load conditions and connection beam conditions were considered. As the test results, the displacements of connected-pile foundation differed in accordance with load directions. The settlements of connected-pile foundation decreased with the increased stiffness of connection beams, lateral load capacity decreased in accordance with load height, and the lateral load capacity on the failure criteria was similar regardless of load direction.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.31-41
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• 2012

Pile foundation for transmission tower constructed in weak ground can cause the damage of the tower due to the different settlement between the foundations. In Japan and USA, connected-pile foundations whose 4 foundations are connected each other by beams were used for transmission tower (TEPCO 1988, IEEE 2001). Resistance increasing factors for connected-pile foundation signify increasing amount of resistance due to the effect of connected-pile material. In this study, we performed model lateral load tests of connected-pile foundations for transmission tower and found the resistance increasing factors for connected-pile foundation. The tests were performed in silty clay, and the resistance increasing factors were founded in various conditions that lateral load directions and height, the stiffness of beams in the connected-pile foundations were changed. The resistance increasing factors from our research were presented as a function of normal lateral loading height and normal stiffness of the connected-pile material. The resistances which were estimated from the resistance increasing factors were similar to measured values.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.884-892
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• 2006

A friction-type reinforcing member(FRM) is proposed for the purpose of upgrading wind resistant performance of a transmission tower and verified through cyclic loading tests. First, suitable install scheme of the FRM is investigated through numerical analysis. Main-post-reinforcing type and X-brace type installation schemes are examined, and numerical analysis shows that the former is more effective due to the vertical cantilever type behavior of the transmission tower. Based on this result, two types of the FRM's, dissipating energy in slotted belted connections, are proposed. The one utilizes the relative displacement between the FRM and the main post, and the other utilizes that between the separated angles consisting of the FRM as a slip deformation of the slotted bolted connection. Proposed FRM's are installed on each main post of the 1/2 scale substructure models of an actual transmission tower body. From cyclic loading tests, the latter type of the proposed FRM's dissipates energy more effectively and its slip load is controlled by applied torque well, and shares considerable amount of the axial force in the main post.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.687-696
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• 2005

Safety diagnosis was conducted to evaluate the long-term stability evaluation of power transmission tower of which deformation of the upper structural elements occurred. To assess the cause of the structural deformation, field investigation including BIPS, down-hole test, concrete pile coring and finite element analysis were carried out. From these studies, the major cause of deformation was found due to the heavily fractured layer and weathered soil topography at the pile tip area. The cement-milk grouting method was proposed to reinforce these weak zone around the pile tip area. Also, the increase of cross-section and stiffness for steel members of upper tower structures was suggested. Instrumental monitoring was proposed as well to verify reinforcing effect.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.344-346
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• 2001

The sharing of common corridors by electric power transmission lines and pipelines is becoming more common place. However, such corridor sharing can result in undesired coupling of electromagnetic energy from the power lines to the near facilities. During a fault on any of the transmission lines, energization of the earth by supporting structures near the fault can result in large voltages appearing locally between the earth and the steel wall of any nearby pipeline. This paper presents the outline of the tower footings for the transmission lines having been used in KEPCO and analyzes the earth resistance for operation method of the tower footing, that is contact presence for the anchor and reinforcing rob of the tower and foundation presence of the underground wiring.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1997.07e
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• pp.1843-1846
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• 1997

This paper describes the fault reducing effects of the 154 kV transmission tower by auxiliary grounding from the top of the tower to ground. The grounding surge impedance of the auxiliary grounding system is calculated by CDEGS(:Current Distribution Electromagnetic Interference Grounding and Soil Structure Analysis), and the critical lightning back flashover current and arcing horn dynamic characteristics are simulated by EMTP/TACS(:Electromagnetic Transient Program/Transient Analysis of Control Systems). The calculated results of total LFOR(Lightning Flashover Rate) shows that the LFOR can be reduced from 5.2(count/100km. year) to 3.4 by auxiliary grounding on the 154 kV transmission tower with one ground wire shielding system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.311-326
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• 2024

Transmission tower structures are particularly susceptible to damage and even collapse under strong seismic ground motions. Conventional seismic analyses of transmission towers are usually performed by considering only ground motion uncertainty while ignoring structural uncertainty; consequently, the performance evaluation and failure prediction may be inaccurate. In this context, the present study numerically investigates the seismic responses and failure mechanism of transmission towers by considering multiple sources of uncertainty. To this end, an existing transmission tower is chosen, and the corresponding three-dimensional finite element model is created in ABAQUS software. Sensitivity analysis is carried out to identify the relative importance of the uncertain parameters in the seismic responses of transmission towers. The numerical results indicate that the impacts of the structural damping ratio, elastic modulus and yield strength on the seismic responses of the transmission tower are relatively large. Subsequently, a set of 20 uncertainty models are established based on random samples of various parameter combinations generated by the Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) method. An uncertainty analysis is performed for these uncertainty models to clarify the impacts of uncertain structural factors on the seismic responses and failure mechanism (ultimate bearing capacity and failure path). The numerical results show that structural uncertainty has a significant influence on the seismic responses and failure mechanism of transmission towers; different possible failure paths exist for the uncertainty models, whereas only one exists for the deterministic model, and the ultimate bearing capacity of transmission towers is more sensitive to the variation in material parameters than that in geometrical parameters. This research is expected to provide an in-depth understanding of the influence of structural uncertainty on the seismic demand assessment of transmission towers.