Cascade failure analysis of electrical transmission lines using ADINA

Siddam, Aravind (2014) Cascade failure analysis of electrical transmission lines using ADINA. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Cascade failure of electrical transmission lines can be caused by a number of reasons. Dynamic forces like equipment failure, conductors rupture in any span, heavy wind loads, snow accumulation on conductors and structural members or ice shedding are known to be the main reasons for such a collapse. The primary objective of this investigation was to study the dynamic behavior of supporting towers, collapse of supporting towers and longitudinal dynamic maximum forces that were induced on the adjacent supporting towers due to conductors rupture in any span. The study was performed on transmission lines, whose supporting towers were modeled with (a) Linear elastic truss and beam elements, (b) Moment-Curvature beam elements, with elastic-plastic material properties, and (c) Towers with load limiting devices or tower load controllers (TLC). The transmission lines modeled with linear elastic truss and beam elements were used to perform the free vibration analysis to calculate the damping properties of the towers and the transmission lines. Each of these models was used to conduct static and transient dynamic analyses due to broken conductors in the middle span. The transient dynamic analyses were carried out with bare conductor (no-ice-loads) loading and 25-mm (1-inch) radial ice loading conditions. The linear material models do not predict the failure or cascading of the transmission line towers, however considering the elements as moment-curvature beam models with elasto-plastic materials showed that the towers adjacent to the span, where conductors are ruptured, experienced large impact forces causing the adjacent towers to collapse. And the use of TLCs was able to limit the length of this cascade failure.

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