9. Experimental investigation of conductor vibration

MATLAB code was written for the FEM and this was used to model the dynamic analysis of the problem of conductor vibration. To validate the FEM model an experimental study was conducted at the Vibration and Research Testing Centre (VRTC) situated at the University of KwaZulu-Natal which comprises of apparatus similar to that shown in Figure 3. The sweep tests (resonance search) were carried out and the test results were used to obtain natural frequencies and the modes of vibration for a Pelican conductor. The frequency range for the

High Voltage Transmission Line Vibration: Using MATLAB to Implement the Finite Element Model of a Wind… 53 http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75186

Figure 2. FEM MATLAB implementation strategy.

Figure 3. Experimental test set-up [7] .

Pelican conductor was between 5 and 50 Hz and testing was done for three axial tensions of 20, 25, 30 and 35% of its ultimate tensile strength (UTS). The experimental results obtained were used to validate the developed FEM model. The comparison between results from the experimental data, FEM and the theoretical model for the three different axial tensions for high voltage conductors are reported in the next section.
