• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.415-436
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• 2003

The combination of spatial latticed structures (hereafter SLS) and flexible cables, the cable-stayed spatial latticed structures (hereafter CSLS) can cross longer span. According to variation principle, a novel geometric nonlinear formulation for 3-D bar elements considering large displacement and infinitesimal rotation increments with second-order precision is developed. The cable nonlinearity is investigated and it is taken that the secant modulus method can be considered as an exact method for a cable member. The tower column with which the cables link is regarded as a special kind of beam element, and, a new simplified stiffness formulation is presented. The computational strategies for the nonlinear dynamic response of structures are given, and the ultimate load carrying capacities and seismic responses are analyzed numerically. It is noted that, compared with corresponding spatial latticed shells, the cable-stayed spatial latticed shells have more strength and more stiffness, and that the verical seismic responses of both CSLS and CLS are remarkably greater than the horizontal ones. In addition, the computation shows that the stiffness of tower column influences the performance of CSLS to a certain extent and the improvement of structural strength and stiffness of CSLS is relevant not only to cables but also to tower columns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.9-21
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• 2004

The present study aims at the reliability analysis of steel towers against the limit state of deflection. For this purpose tip deflection of the tower has been obtained after carrying out the dynamic analysis of the tower using modal method. This tip deflection is employed for subsequent reliability analysis. A limit state function based on serviceability criterion of deflection is derived in terms of random variables. A complete procedure of reliability computation is then presented. To study the influence of various random variables on tower reliability, sensitivity analysis has been carried out. Design points, important for probabilistic design of towers, are also located on the failure surface. Some parametric studies have also been included to obtain the results of academic and field interest.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.681-695
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• 2021

Many existing transmission or communication towers designed several decades ago have undergone nonreversible performance degradation, making it hardly meet the additional requirements from upgrades in wind load design codes and extra services of electricity and communication. Therefore, a new-type non-destructive reinforcement method was proposed to reduce the on-site operation of drilling and welding for improving the quality and efficiency of reinforcement. Six built-up steel angle members were tested under compression to examine the reinforcement performance. Subsequently, the cyclic loading test was conducted on a pair of steel angle tower sub-structures to investigate the reinforcement effect, and a simplified prediction method was finally established for calculating the buckling bearing capacity of those new-type retrofitted built-up steel angles. The results indicates that: no apparent difference exists in the initial stiffness for the built-up specimens compared to the unreinforced steel angles; retrofitting the steel angles by single-bolt clamps can guarantee a relatively reasonable reinforcement effect and is suggested for the reduced additional weight and higher construction efficiency; for the substructure test, the latticed substructure retrofitted by the proposed reinforcement method significantly improves the lateral stiffness, the non-deformability and energy dissipation capacity; moreover, an apparent pinching behavior exists in the hysteretic loops, and there is no obvious yield plateau in the skeleton curves; finally, the accuracy validation result indicates that the proposed theoretical model achieves a reasonable agreement with the test results. Accordingly, this study can provide valuable references for the design and application of the non-destructive upgrading project of steel angle towers.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.45-60
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• 2007

Transmission tower is a vital component in electrical system. In order to accurately compute the dynamic response and reliability of transmission tower under the excitation of wind loading, a new method termed as probability density evolution method (PDEM) is introduced in the paper. The PDEM had been proved to be of high accuracy and efficiency in most kinds of stochastic structural analysis. Consequently, it is very hopeful for the above needs to apply the PDEM in dynamic response of wind-excited transmission towers. Meanwhile, this paper explores the wind stochastic field from stochastic Fourier spectrum. Based on this new viewpoint, the basic random parameters of the wind stochastic field, the roughness length $z_0$ and the mean wind velocity at 10 m heigh $U_{10}$, as well as their probability density functions, are investigated. A latticed steel transmission tower subject to wind loading is studied in detail. It is shown that not only the statistic quantities of the dynamic response, but also the instantaneous PDF of the response and the time varying reliability can be worked out by the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the PDEM is feasible and efficient in the dynamic response and reliability analysis of wind-excited transmission towers.