ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

LECTURE -6
MECHANICAL DESIGN
OF
OVER HEAD LINE

Mechanical Design of Over Head Line

 ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

1.String Chart
2.Sag Template
3.Catenary Concept
4.a.Kelvins Law
b. Limitations of Kelvins Law
c. Graphical Representation of Kelvins Law
d. Modification of Kelvins Law.

Mechanical Design of Over Head Line

 1.String Chart

  Stringing
chart is useful in knowing the sag and tension at any
.
temperature. Stringing chart gives the data per sag to be allowed
and the tension to be allowed for a particular temperature.

• Stringing chart prepared by calculating the sag and tension on

the conductor under worst conditions such as maximum wind
pressure and minimum temperature by assuming a suitable
factor safety.
 Cont.…..
Let L1, T1, t1, W1 are the total length of conductor, tension,
.
  temperature and total load per meter under
first set of physical conditions respectively.
• Similarly L2, T2, t2, W2 are the same quantities under the
second set of physical conditions.
• Increase to tension from T1 to T2 elongates the
conductor by L1(T2-T1)/aE
where, a = conductor cross sectional area
E = Young’s modulus of elasticity
 Cont.…..

 
.
 Cont.…..

 
.
 Cont.…..

 
.
 Graph
 • Now the graph of tension verses temperature and sag verses
.
temperature can beplotted as shown in fig.
• This graph is plotted for a fixed span and is called as stringing chart.
 ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

2.Sag Template
A Sag Template is prepared on celluloid or tracing cloth. and
curves are drawn to the same horizontal and vertical scales as the
profile of the line .
1.The upper curve represent the Conductor Line.
2.The middle curve represents the Ground clearance Line.
3.The lower curve represents the tower footing Line.

Mechanical Design of Over Head Line

 ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

 The sag
. template is used for allocating the position and height of the
.
supports correctly on the profile.The sag template decided the
limitations of vertical and wind load. It also limits the minimum
clearance angle between the sag and the ground for safety purpose. The
sag template is usually made up of transparent celluloid, perplex, or
sometimes cardboard. The following curves are marked on it

Mechanical Design of Over Head Line

 ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
Hot Curve – The hot curve is obtained by plotting the sag at
maximum temperature against span length. It shows where the
 supports
. must be located to maintain the prescribed ground
clearance. .
Ground Clearance Curve –  The clearance curve is below the hot
curve. It is drawn parallel to the hot curve and at a vertical distance
equal to the ground clearance as prescribed by the regulation for the
given line.
 
Support Foot Curve –  This curve is drawn for locating the position
of the supports for tower lines. It shows the height from the base of
the standard support to the point of attachment of the lower
conductor. For wood or concrete line, pole line this curve is not
required to be drawn since they can be put in any convenient
position.
Cold Curve or Uplift Curve –  Uplift curve is obtained by plotting
the sag at a minimum temperature without wind price against span
length. This curve is drawn to determine whether uplift of conductor
occurs on any support. The uplift conductor may occur at low
temperature when one support is much lower than either of the
adjoining ones.
Mechanical Design of Over Head Line
3.Catenary Concept ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

Catenary, in mathematics, a curve that describes the shape of a flexible

 .
hanging chain or cable—the name . derives from the Latin catenaria
(“chain”). Any freely hanging cable or string assumes this shape, also
called a chain, if the body is of uniform mass per unit of length and is
acted
  upon solely by gravity.
When a conductor is suspended between two supports and carrying its
own uniform weight, the curve formed is called a catenary. For
simplified analysis, some of the design engineers assume that the curve is
parabolic. This is only true if the sag is small as compared with the span
length which happens mostly on the distribution lines. Although the
formula is quite complex, it is always recommended to follow catenary
calculations. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AxVMEfnbcM)
Mechanical Design of Over Head Line
Kelvins Law ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

As economy is one of the most important factors while designing

 .
any transmission line, the cost of required for
. conductor material is a
considerable part. Thus, it becomes vital to select a proper size of the
conductor. The most economic design of a transmission line is for
which
  the total annual cost is minimum. Total annual cost can be divided
into two parts
1.annual charges on capital (includes depreciation, interest on the capital cost,
maintenance cost etc..)
2. Running charges (The cost of energy lost during the operation is counted)
In running charges two important factors included ..

Mechanical Design of Over Head Line

Running charges ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

 1.
. If the cross-sectional area of the. conductor is decreased, the total
capital cost of the conductor decreases but the line losses increase
(resistance increases with the decrease in the conductor size, hence, I 2R
loss
 
increases)

2. Whereas, if the cross-sectional area of the conductor is increased, the

line losses decrease but the total capital cost increases.

Therefore, it is important to find the most economical size of the

conductor. Kelvin's law helps in finding this.
Mechanical Design of Over Head Line
 ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

Kelvin's Law For Finding Economic Size Of A Conductor

 Let,
. area of cross-section of conductor = a .
Annual interest and depreciation on capital cost of the conductor = C1
Annual running charges = C2
Now, annual interest and depreciation cost is directly proportional to the area of
 
conductor.
i.e., C1 = K1a
And, annual running charges are inversely proportional to the area of conductor.
C2 = K2/a
Where, K1 and K2 are constants.
Now, Total annual cost = C = C1 + C2
                 C = K1a + K2/a
For C to be minimum, the differentiation of C w.r.t a must be zero.
i.e. dC/da = 0. Mechanical Design of Over Head Line
 “ The elvin's law states that the most economical size of
a Conductor is that for which
annual interest and depreciation on
the capital cost of the conductor is
• equal to the annual cost of energy
loss."
From the above derivation, the
economical cross-sectional area of a
conductor can be calculated as,
a = √(K2/K1)
 ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
Graphical Illustration Of Kelvin's Law The annual cost of conductor is directly
 . proportional to size of the conductor,
.
(shown by the straight line C1 )in the
figure. Annual cost of energy loss is
shown by the curve C2. The total annual
  cost curve is obtained by adding the curve
C1 and C2. The lowermost point on total
annual cost curve gives the
most economical size of the
conductor which corresponds to the
intersection point of curve C1 and C2. So,
here, the most economical area of cross-
section of the conductor is represented by
ox and the corresponding minimum cost is
represented
Mechanical Design xy.
byLine
of Over Head
 ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

Limitations Of Kelvin's Law

  .Although Kelvin's law holds good theoretically, there is often considerable
.
difficulty while applying it in practice. The limitations of this law are:
1. It is quite difficult to estimate the energy loss in the line without actual load
curves which are not available at the time of estimation.
 2.Interest and depreciation on the capital cost cannot be determined accurately.

3.The conductor size determined using this law may not always be practicable one
because it may not have sufficient mechanical strength.
4.This law does not take into account several factors like safe current carrying
capacity, corona loss etc.
5.The economical size of a conductor may cause the voltage drop beyond the
acceptable limits.

Mechanical Design of Over Head Line

 Modified Kelvin's Law ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
The actual Kelvin's law does not count the cost of
supporting structures, erection, insulators etc.. It only
 . accounts for the capital cost of conductor and
.
corresponding interest and depreciation. Also, for
underground cables, the cost of insulation and laying is
not considered in the actual Kelvin's law. To account for
these costs and to get practically fair results, the initial
  investment needs to be divided into two parts, (i) one
part which is independent of conductor size and (ii)
other part which is directly proportional to the
conductor size. For an overhead line, insulator cost is
almost constant and the cost of supporting structure and
their erection is partly constant and partly proportional
to the conductor size. So, according to the modified
Kelvin's law, the annual charge on capital outlay is
The modified statement of Kelvin's law suggests that given as, C1 = K0 + K1a. where, K0 is an another
the most economical conductor size is that for which the constant. The differentiation of total cost C w.r.t. to the
annual cost of energy loss is equal to the annual interest area of conductor (a) comes to be same as derived
and depreciation for that part of capital cost which is above under the heading Kelvin's law.
proportional to the conductor size
Mechanical Design of Over Head Line
 ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

 .
.

END
 
EPTD LECTURE-4

Mechanical Design of Over Head Line