Structural behaviour of lattice transmission towers subjected to wind load

Abstract

Hurricane Wilma hit Yucatan Peninsula in 2005, causing substantial damage to local electrical transmission towers. Based on the failure characteristics observed on such towers, an analytical study is performed to reproduce such failures and assess their vulnerability. Two latticed transmission towers are analysed under the action of 14 different wind velocity patterns corresponding to several national and international wind design codes. Displacement-controlled pushover analyses are performed to reproduce impending failure mechanism for considered wind patterns, and associated gradient wind speed is computed. Results illustrate that consistent cyclonic wind speed patterns lead to better estimates of failure mechanism and gradient wind values than traditional non-cyclonic patterns.