Objective
Overhead lines are essential for the electrical power transmission infrastructure of any country. The peak of construction of the European transmission infrastructure happened in the 70's of last century. It is estimated that nowadays several millions of km of lines are serving within the Trans-European Networks (400kV) and the primary (range 100-400 kV) OHL (overhead lines) networks.
Owners of OHL experienced numerous vibration problems from the early beginning of electricity, problem which is increasing as the network are still expanding. After the problem caused by a thunderstorm in France in the early nineties, another spectacular accident in Canada occurred during an icing storm in the winter 1998 - a cascade failure up to several thousands of towers were down. These facts produced an international deep re-looking of their design methodology taking into account such dramatic events.
One of the issues was concerning large vibrations, known as galloping, a very complex aeroelastic instability, which may lead to severe consequences.
Considering above-mentioned problems the following need has been defined:
To manage the huge number of existing overhead lines structures to be assessed, the methodology as well as the hard and software tools have to be improved considerably.
The main objectives of this proposal are:
- Develop a methodology with software able to find potential risks of overhead lines galloping, and able to evaluate proper design value of appropriate devices to control the phenomenon;
- Develop a new anti-galloping device, based on the former software analysis, which would prevent protected lines from the galloping phenomenon.
This proposal would contribute to the following major societal and economical demands:
- Increased safety of major portions of our technical infrastructure such as power transmission lines is considered.
- To avoid problems within the power transmission network, where cascade failure reduce the quality of life of the citizens and the waste of money through power flow re-direction could be reduced to a minimum.
- Studies have demonstrated that the cut of a vital transmission line has deep impact on the employment of the involved region. Regions effected from infrastructure breakdowns are subject to loss of productivity, delays in delivery and resulting loss of contracts. Even bankruptcies have been blamed on insufficient infrastructural connections.
The outcome of the project will be a robust anti-galloping system adapted to the needs of owners of structures consisting of cables. Real time expertise executed on site will be utilized to create a system that delivers quantitative assessment values on the spot. This will enable quick and accurate decision-making.
The findings will be disseminated to the scientific community and used as a basis for further research, strengthening the strategic competence and further positioning of the partners as the world experts.
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
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B-4000 Liège
Belgium