Mechanical parameter optimization of interphase composite spacer used for controlling conductor galloping

Interphase spacer is an effective galloping control device. For the conception that spacers must provide enough bearing force to conductors, the flexible composite spacers with integrated structure are widely used nowadays in China. To acquire adequate rigidity, the only way is to increase the core rod diameter. It results that the spacers are over long and over heavy, which raises the costs and manufacture difficulties. Furthermore the heavy weight of the spacers will severely increase the tension and the sag of the conductors and bring unfavorable influences to the transmission lines. In the paper, dynamic model for the overhead lines and mechanical models for several kinds of interphase spacers are presented. Then numerical method is used to simulate the vibrations of the conductors. Aiming at optimizing the mechanical parameter, the spacers with different structures and parameters are compared to examine the relationship between mechanical parameter and effectivity of controlling galloping. The results show that the rigidity of the spacer under compressive load is not important as we considered before, so the heavy structure is not necessary. Finally it is concluded that the spacers designed as light structures is reasonable.