Mechanical Evaluation of Composite Fibre Optic Ground Wires

Ontario Hydro is considering the use of fibre optic ground wire (OPGW) in its EHV transmission system. To assist in the selection of an appropriate OPGW, laboratory tests on three different OPGW´s from two manufacturers were performed. These tests were; 1) Static Tension Test, ii) Strain Margin Test, iii) Creep Test, iv) Aeolian Vibration Test, v) Galloping Test, vi) Fatigue Test on Aluminum Core Tube, vii) Electrical Short Circuit Test, viii) Visual Inspection and ix) Other Tests. The manufacturers were responsible for the static tension test, the strain margin test, the creep test and other tests. Ontario Hydro performed the aeolian vibration test, galloping test, fatigue test on aluminum core tube and the electric short circuit test. This paper describes the test set-up, procedures, instrumentation and results of the aeolian vibration, galloping and fatigue tests. The manufacturer´s tests are briefly described however, detailed documentation is provided in an Ontario Hydro Research Division Report. The electrical short circuit tests are described in a paper by Madge et al, submitted to IEEE for presentation at the PES 1989 Winter Meeting. The purpose of the aeolian vibration test was to determine the high cycle fatigue performance of the OPGW and the performance of the optical fibres under relatively small peakto-peak amplitude and high frequency. The purpose of the galloping test was to determine the low cycle fatigue performance of the OPGW and the performance of the optical fibres under vibration of relatively large peak-to-peak amplitude and low frequency.