• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.151-171
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• 2018

Transmission tower-line systems are commonly slender and generally possess a small stiffness and low structural damping. They are prone to impulsive excitations induced by cable rupture and may experience strong vibration. Excessive deformation and vibration of a transmission tower-line system subjected to cable rupture may induce a local destruction and even failure event. A little work has yet been carried out to evaluate the performance of transmission tower-line systems in mountain areas subjected to cable rupture. In addition, the control for cable rupture induced vibration of a transmission tower-line system has not been systematically conducted. In this regard, the dynamic response analysis of a transmission tower-line system in mountain areas subjected to cable rupture is conducted. Furthermore, the feasibility of using viscous fluid dampers to suppress the cable rupture-induced vibration is also investigated. The three dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model of a transmission tower-line system is first established and the mathematical model of a mountain is developed to describe the equivalent scale and configuration of a mountain. The model of a tower-line-mountain system is developed by taking a real transmission tower-line system constructed in China as an example. The mechanical model for the dynamic interaction between the ground and transmission lines is proposed and the mechanical model of a viscous fluid damper is also presented. The equations of motion of the transmission tower-line system subjected to cable rupture without/with viscous fluid dampers are established. The field measurement is carried out to verify the analytical FE model and determine the damping ratios of the example transmission tower-line system. The dynamic analysis of the tower-line system is carried out to investigate structural performance under cable rupture and the validity of the proposed control approach based on viscous fluid dampers is examined. The made observations demonstrate that cable rupture may induce strong structural vibration and the implementation of viscous fluid dampers with optimal parameters can effectively suppress structural responses.