ON THE ENERGY-DISSIPATION IN SPACER DAMPERS IN BUNDLED CONDUCTORS OF OVERHEAD TRANSMISSION-LINES

In high voltage overhead transmission lines, bundles of conductors are used frequently for mechanical and electrical reasons. These bundled conductors are particularly susceptible to wind excited vibrations in the frequency range approximately from 10 to 60 Hz, due to vortex shed ding. The usual dampers of the Stockbridge or of a similar type locate d near the suspension clamp do not lead to pervasive damping of the wh ole bundle. In recent years self-damping spacers have therefore been u sed to limit the danger of conductor fatigue due to aeolian vibrations . The numerical treatment of the boundary value problem for bundles eq uipped with self-damping spacers leads to complicated and poorly condi tioned equations. In the present paper, a self-damping spacer is consi dered in a bundle of four conductors. The energy dissipation associate d with the mathematical model-for this spacer can be expressed in the form of a symmetric matrix of dimension 16 x 16. By solving the relati vely small eigenvalue problem defined by the corresponding 16 x 16 mat rix, the spacer damper can be optimized with respect to mechanical ene rgy dissipation by maximizing the smallest real part of its eigenvalue s.