A pounding spacer damper and its application on transmission line subjected to fluctuating wind load

Summary In this paper, a new pounding spacer damper (PSD) is proposed, and the control effect on the transmission line under the fluctuating wind load is validated. At first, the schematic of the proposed PSD is provided, and the mechanical models of elastic, damping, and pounding forces are then obtained. After that, the dynamic equations of transmission line equipped with the PSD are derived. On the basis, the finite element model of transmission line–PSD system with the ANSYS software is established, and the pounding force of the PSD is calculated and applied through the ANSYS Parametric Design Language. Then the response induced by the fluctuating wind load is simulated, and meanwhile, the control effects of the PSD and spacer damper without pounding force are compared, of which the results illustrate that the minimal reduction ratio for the conductor span can reach to 11.10%, indicating that the proposed PSD can effectively control the vibration of the conductor span under the fluctuating wind load. In addition, the parametric analysis of gap, frequency, and damping ratios is conducted and demonstrates that the gap and frequency ratio have great impact on the control effect while the influence of damping ratio is not very significant.