Comparative study of wind and ice loads on telecommunication towers in hilly terrain

Abstract

Telecommunication structures are usually defined as steel lattice towers on which they mount microwave dish antennas. These are slender, tall, highly optimised structures and the loading conditions that control their performance are extreme cold, snowfall, and strong winds. Strong winds combined with ice accumulation on the structure's members and dishes are the primary reasons of collapse. This comparative study is to investigate the effect of ice loads combined with wind load analysis of triangular tower configuration comprising of height 60m located in hilly terrain (specially dealt with cold region) having wind zones 39mps and 55mps. By referring specialized standards for analysis of lattice towers, reduction of wind load shall be considered when ice loads are accounted for analysis. Initial design is performed for full wind load of the tower configuration through space truss analysis using STAAD.Pro V22 software and same is checked with combined wind and ice loads as per appropriate standards. A comparison statement is derived on effect of ice loads on analysis of structure – leg forces, bracing forces and deflection for tower configuration considered in parametric study.

Keywords

• telecommunication towers
• lattice towers
• steel towers
• gbt tower
• hilly terrain
• ice loads
• wind loads