Structural performance of concrete poles used in electric power distribution network

This paper presents an experimental study on structural performance of concrete poles used in electric power distribution network (EPDN). Three full scale 12-m concrete poles were tested; and a numerical study on a 7-span distribution line was also carried out in order to investigate lateral behavior of the network under severe weather conditions, as it is believed EPDN has a vital role on sustainability of power transmission from the power planet to the consumers which might be hundreds kilometers far away. One of the main issues in EPDN is concrete poles' collapse under simultaneous wind and ice loads in some unreachable snow covered areas. However, the results show that the prescribed loading regimes by standards do not induce any damage into the distribution network nevertheless some unforeseen loads like gust wind load in heavy weather conditions cause the poles' failure. Therefore, a non-linear pushover analysis was carried out to find out the weakest part of the distribution network; and finally some suggestions for increasing the EPDN's sustainability are made.