The development of a high performance vibration damper for alloy conductors

In the construction or refurbishment of high voltage transmission lines there is a trend away from traditional ACSR conductor construction towards conductors which use only aluminium alloy strands. However, due to the distribution of load in the newer AAAC construction conductors, the damping inherent in the conductors is substantially less than that of an equivalent ACSR conductor. The authors use an energy balance technique to examine the behaviour of a typical ACSR conductor and conventional Stockbridge damper arrangement which has been proven by many years of field service. The authors consider the suitability of the conventional dampers for use on the newer AAAC conductors, and also examine the behaviour of the AAAC conductor with an alternative, more modern damper design and conclude that potential problems exist if ACSR damping arrangements are used on the AAAC conductors