FAILURE OF TOWERS DURING OBSERVATION PERIOD UNDER ULTIMATE LOADING R.SUSENDRAN P.MUNIYAPPA — AFSAR AHMED ADDITIONAL DIRECTOR JOINT DIRECTOR ENGG OFFICER C.DATTATRI T.RAGHUNATHA D.REVANNA ENGG OFFICER ENGG OFFICER ENGG OFFICER Central Power Research Institute P.B No 8066 Bangalore 560080 ABSTRACT Full scale Testing of a number of transmission line towers are being carried out at the Tower Testing Station of CPRI , for their mechanical strength Based on the data available on the tested square based towers ranging from 33kV to 400 kV and multi circuit towers an assessment of observation period has been carried out and is presented in this paper 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 With the ever increasing demand for electrical power and the growth of power systems in the country more and more Transmission lines are being installed. The Transmission Lines are mostly overhead. The investment on supports is quite high ‘The overhead line supports are normally steel towers, As yet, this country does not have standard designs for transmission line towers. As and when a line is established new tower designs are to be undergone. In order to ensure their satisfactory performance and adequacy of design full scale tests are to be carried out 1.2 The towers that are tested are required to withstand a series of tests such as Normal condition, Broken wire condition and safety conditions, The tests are considered successful if the tower withstands the loads for an observation period which is popularly known as waiting period 1.3 There is a variation in the practices followed for the observation period in the IS and IEC codes. IS code is more stringent with reference to observation period AS such there is a demand by the ‘manufacturers to keep thi line ean Ine ‘keep this observation period in 14 Based on experience and observation of towers during full scale esting at the Tower Testing Station of CPRI an assessment has been done on the ‘observation period which is brought out in this paper. 2.0 OBSERVATION PERIOD 2.1 Definition ‘The waiting period i the period for which the towernas to withstand the toads with no visite deformation. ‘observation period is the period for which the tower has to withstand the Pee eae ‘ages of dooding waite, Visine vFeformation.. The final observation, period the period for which the tower has 10 withstand the ritimate loads with no visible deformation. 2.2 Specifications 2.2.11S Code ‘As’ indicated in the 1S , towers are loaded in stages of 25, 50, 75, 9%. 95 &100 % They ‘are kept under observation at the fing.» As per 1S 802 ( part TI), - Under normfal.as well as Broken, conductor the tower will be kept under ‘minutes at the end of cach of ‘of loading. For normal as well the tower will be kept Sees obscrvation. for five minntos afer it fully Teaded up to,ultimate loads, (.c.100%) 2.2.2 IEC Code 3.0 TOWER TESTING STATION (171s )AT CPRI, BANGALORE. CPRI, Bangalore facility for full scale testing of 1976. This testing 12 7ee conventional transmission towers. So far 361 During the passage of time, CPRI has been actively engaged in, augmenting, the test facilities with minimum cost to test even special towers. This way it has been possible fo test number of conventional towers up to 800 KV and unconventional towers such as Guyed tower, composite towers, Rectangular Based towers, Tubular towers and Narrow based tower, Perhaps, CPRI Tower Testing Station is the ‘only one in the country, which has) been. able to achieve this feat. The data's available are regularly being used for Research & development activities. 4.0 TESTING OF TOWERS 4.1 Pre-Testing Arrangements For testing the following protesting. activities are to tbe carried out viz.. i) Stub setting & Welding ii) Erection iii) Load cell calibration iv) Attaching haulage wire rope with load ‘cells to the tower & rigging. 4.2. Testing Procedure ‘The loads are simulated by application through pretested stel wire ropes... loads are measured by calibrated Load cells and indicators. The loads are applied in, sages of 25,50,75,90,95. & 100 %. ‘These are kept under observation at the end of each‘The tower is tested for the following load cases. 1. Bolt Slip Test 2. Normal Condition Test 3. Broken Wire Test On successful completion of the above test the tower is tested for destruction test. 5.0 ASSESSMENT OF OBSERVATION PERIOD About 290 towers have been tested in the Prototype Tower Testing Station of CPRI. The transmission towers can fail due to number of causes Failure of tower can be due to improper design, defective material and fabrication faulty erection and improper procedure followed during. testing Since testing is the last stage in the process and failure during testing can be due to one or more or all of the causes mentioned above .It is reasonable to more practical approach to assess the based on the failure of towers obtained during Full scale testing From the data base of tested towers, it was found that 26 towers had failed during the Observation period itself after the tower was fully loaded up to the ultimate loads Summary of various towers failed during observation period for different voltage classes are given in Table -I. A further analysis has also been attempted forthe voltage classes by considering different types of towers and the test under Which the failure has occured. These are shown in Table -IT to V, 5.1 Analysis of data 352 5.13 From the Table 1 it canbe seen that for voltage class of 33 to 220 KV 9 Nos of towers out of 13 (about 70 % ) have failed during the observation period of 0 to 60 seconds Only 4 Nos ( about 30% of the towers have failed during observation period of 61 to 300 seconds, 5.14 From the Table 1 it can also be scen that for Voltage class of 400 kV and multicircuit only 7 Nos of towers out of 13 (about 54 % ) have failed during the observation period of 0 to 60 seconds . However 12 Nos. about 92% Jof the towers have failed during observation period of 0 t0 180 seconds, From Table Il it can be seen that ‘umber of suspension and angle towers for 33 fo 220 kV voltage class that have failed during ‘observation period of 0 10 60. seconds are 3 out of 4 (75%) and 6 out. of 9 (about 67 %) From Table Ill it can be seen that number of Suspension and angle towers for 400kv & multi ireuit towers that have failed during observation. Period of 0 10 60 seconds are quite low , however it is found that towers failing between 0 to 180 seconds are very 4(75%) and 8 out of 9 (about 89 %) respectively 5.16 Table IV and V show number of towers failed during different type of test for 33 to 220 kV and Table IV shows that number of towers for 33 to 220 KY voltage class that have failed during observation Period of 0 to 60 seconds are 3 out of 4 (759%) and 6 Out of 9 (about 67%) for normal condition and broken wire condition tests respectively, Table V shows that number of towers for 400 kV and multicircuit towers that have failed during observation period of 0 to 180 seconds are very well Femcnted 4 out of 4 (100%) and 8 out of 9 (about 89%) respectively