A model developed by Washington State University researchers can predict how transmission towers might fail and collapse in extreme wind events.
The work, reported in the journal, Engineering Structures, could someday help power companies identify the most vulnerable transmission towers in extreme wind events and determine which should have retrofits to reduce the power outage risks.
“This can be really useful from the utility company’s perspective because they want to investigate power outage risk within the region, but their power networks are often distributed across multiple counties,” said Ji Yun Lee, corresponding author and associate professor in WSU’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “They are dealing with many power grid components and transmission towers. They want to investigate which transmission tower might be the most vulnerable to wind events, and which tower might require some kind of mitigation or structural retrofit, so that they can reduce the power outage risk.” [Read more]