Control of Wind-induced Response of Transmission Tower-line System By Using Magnetorheological Dampers

Transmission tower-line system is a high-rise structure with low damping and it is therefore prone to strong wind excitation. In this paper, the control of wind-induced response of transmission tower-line system is carried out by using magnetorheological (MR) dampers. The effects of brace stiffness of damper are introduced and a multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) model is developed for both in-plane/out-of-plane vibration of transmission tower-line system. Two semi-active control strategies are proposed for the vibration mitigation of tower-line system. The first one is based on fixed increment of controllable damper force whereas the second one is a clipped-optimal strategy based on fuzzy control principle. The optimal parameters of the MDOF model of transmission line are investigated. A real transmission tower-line system constructed in China is taken as an example to examine the feasibility and reliability of the proposed approach. A parametric study is conducted for the effects of brace stiffness of MR damper, wind loading intensity, and parameters of MR fluids on the control performance. The results demonstrate that the incorporation of MR dampers into the transmission tower-line system can substantially suppress the wind-induced responses of transmission tower if the damper parameters are optimally determined. The performance of the two kinds of semi-active control approaches is better than that of a passive control approach.