Graduation Semester and Year
2017
Language
English
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
First Advisor
Andrey Beyle
Second Advisor
Seiichi Nomura
Abstract
Currently, most of the crossarms existing in the nation are made of wood. However, wood has a set of negative features like shorter life span due to environmental cracking, damages by insects and birds. Secondly, an insufficient strength and stiffness which is compensated either by increasing the cross-section or by reducing the span between two poles. Also, it’s reduced insulating property in case of high humidity of air which can be accounted to its hygroscopic behavior. Replacement of wooden crossarms by composite crossarms is a known solution to many problems. However, the existing projects are far from optimal. Present investigation is done for both wooden and composite type of crossarms by Finite Element Analysis, taking into account the real geometry of the object. Static analysis was done on popular species of wood such as Spotted Gum (Eucalyptus), Southern Pine (Loblolly) and Western Red Cedar. It was also carried on a hollow composite profile made of reinforced epoxy glass filled with polymeric foam for various configurations. All the simulations were made on ANSYS Workbench V17 software. Modeling of the crossarm assembly was carried on SOLIDWORKS. A set of chief characteristics like mass per unit length, relative stiffness, safety factor and cost were compared between wooden and composite crossarms from the simulated results. Also, some parameters of the composite crossarm were varied to optimize its current design.
Keywords
Finite element analysis, SolidWorks
Disciplines
Aerospace Engineering | Engineering | Mechanical Engineering
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Venkatesh, Amith, "A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF WOODEN AND COMPOSITE CROSSARM OF AN ELECTRIC UTILITY POLE" (2017). Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses. 833.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/mechaerospace_theses/833
Comments
Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington