Structural analysis software for high intensity wind effects on transmission line structures

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Electricity plays a vital and essential role in our daily life. Transmission lines are responsible for carrying electricity from the source of production to the end users. Failure of transmission lines has devastating social and economical consequences, so it is imperative to understand how failure occurs, and how to prevent it. A transmission line consists of towers, conductors, ground-wires, and insulators. The towers are slender and flexible structures, which makes them vulnerable to strong winds. Localized severe wind events in the form of tornados and downbursts are referred to as "High Intensity Wind" (HIW) events. HIW events are responsible for more than 80% of all weather-related transmission line failures worldwide. Many transmission towers have failed in Canada during HIW events, including Manitoba Hydro's near Winnipeg and Hydro One's in Ontario. Despite this fact, codes of practice and design guidelines for transmission line structures remain based on wind loads associated with large scale events. In addition, there is currently one main software in the market for analyzing and designing transmission lines, called "Tower". This software does not account for loads resulting from HIW events. The objective of this research is to develop and validate a fluid/structure analysis numerical code that is capable of predicting the critical loads acting on transmission line structures due to tornadoes and downbursts. This code will be named "HIW" and will be validated using a new test facility, the WindEEE dome, currently under construction at Western, which in 2013 will be the world's first facility where full models of structures can be tested under simulated downburst and tornado events. Since software "TOWER" does not account for HIW loads, the software "HIW" will compliment it by making it compatible with the input file generated by the industry-standard "TOWER" program. This compatibility will lead to the development of unique software that is not available elsewhere. The success of this project will not only have a significant economical benefit by saving losses due to failures during HIW events, but also will mitigate the negative social impact on homeowners and industry due to the interruption of power.