Observations On Wind-induced Failures of Highway Light Poles

Abstract eng:
Highway light poles are slender structures usually exhibiting low values of structural damping which is partially responsible for large-amplitude vibration and sometimes ultimately collapse. This paper is motivated by a recent investigation performed to identify the reason for repeated failures experienced by aluminum tapered light poles in the State of Illinois (USA) that occurred during a heavy winter storm. The study was addressed by combined analytical and numerical analysis of the structural system and its response to simulated external actions. In particular, it was observed that, despite the simple structural system, the exact definition of the excitation causing such oscillations can become sometimes challenging due to an inherent uncertainty in the configuration. Mitigation countermeasures were proposed for amplitude reduction; specific experimental validation was performed.

• Export as: BibTeX | MARC | MARCXML | DC | EndNote | NLM | RefWorks
• Add to your basket