Strain Measurements on ACSR Conductors During Fatigue Tests I—Experimental Method and Data

Electrical transmission lines are subjected to aeolian vibrations which may lead to the failure of overhead conductors by fretting fatigue at suspension clamps. In order to obtain a better understanding of the damaging mechanism of these conductors, strain measurements have been taken on wires near critical sites. The strain gauges were glued in order to separate the bending and the traction strain modes, which gives major insights into conductor mechanics. While the static loading is a combination of traction and bending loadings, the alternating loading is mainly an alternating traction. Alternating stresses used as fatigue indicators do not correlate well with the experimental results due to crude assumptions.