SLIP-JOINT CONNECTION OF CONICAL TOWER SEGMENTS - EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS

References: 17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2017, www.sgemviennagreen.org, SGEM2017 Vienna GREEN Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7408-29-4 / ISSN 1314-2704, 27 - 29 November, 2017, Vol. 17, Issue 63, 651-658 pp; DOI: 10.5593/sgem2017H/63/S26.082

ABSTRACT

The presented paper deals with the design and examination of steel towers of electrical transmission lines with circular or polygonal cross section. Structures of this kind are a safe and reliable option when selecting the appropriate structural solution, but nevertheless often remain omitted due to difficulties with design methodology.
The cross sections of conical towers are in majority of cases categorized as class 4 sections. Being classified as such, they are in certain loading situations considered as shell structures, which results in structural problems related to buckling and web deformation. The presented article provides the results of a FEM analysis of multiple connection details of conical steel towers, highlighting the key aspects of their design, the crucial points for consideration, and the resultant stresses and deformations invoked by the loads these towers are subjected to in real conditions. Furthermore, it provides a simplified methodology of calculating the stress in perhaps the most vulnerable structural detail, i.e. the slip-joint connection of tower segments. The method is also compared with the FEM software analysis in order to identify its possible weaknesses.

Keywords: slip-joint, steel tower, tangential stress, finite element method (FEM)