Structural Optimization for the China UHV Transmission Steel Tower

Abstract-The Ultra High Voltage (UHV) transmission steel tower develops with characteristics of heavy load, high rise and complicate structure. For the reliability and rationality, it is necessary to optimizate tower structure in the design. In this paper, structural optimazition of material and section of tower member and computation model of design are studied for the China UHV tower. According to technical and economical comparisons on material strength and section type of tower members, optimizing rules by applying high strength steel angle and steel tube are concluded for different UHV towers. Considering the adverse influence of bar-end bending moment of steel tube on the tower bearing capacity, it is adviced to design the steel tubular tower by adopting integral space truss model with beam-bar hybird element. All above results have gone through full-scale tests, and have been applied in the China UHV projects.