A New Radial Spoiler for Suppressing Vortex-Induced Vibration of a Tubular Tower and Its Practical Design Method

Circular section tubular members with smaller wind load shape coefficient and higher stability are widely used in ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission towers. However, the tubular members, especially those with a large slenderness ratio, are prone to vortex-induced vibration (VIV) within a specific wind speed range. The sustained vibration of members can easily cause fatigue failure of joints and threaten the operational safety of transmission lines. Consequently, a novel countermeasure for the VIV of tubular towers using a new type of radial spoiler is proposed, whose mechanism is to change the vortex shedding frequency by destroying the large-scale vortexes into small-scale vortexes. Then, the parametric analysis of different variables is carried out based on the orthogonal experiment and numerical simulation, including the height H and length B of the spoiler and the distance S between adjacent spoilers. The results show that the above three parameters all have significant influences on vortex shedding frequency. Additionally, a practical design method of the new radial spoiler is proposed, and the recommended values of H, B, and S are 1D∼2D, 1.5H∼3H, and 5D∼12.5D, respectively, where D is the diameter of the tubular member. Finally, a numerical verification of the suppression effects is carried out, demonstrating that the proposed quick design method is simple and reliable, which can be widely used in the VIV design of tubular towers.

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