Aeolian Vibration Control of Power Transmission Line Using Stockbridge Type Dampers — A Review

Due to its inherent low damping, a power transmission line is prone to wind induced vibration. Vibration control is needed to suppress the aeolian vibration of the transmission-line to reduce the fatigue and to extend its service life. Though patented in 1928, more than 90 years ago, the Stockbridge damper or its variants are still commonly used for vibration suppression of conductors in modern day power transmission systems because of their advantages of simple structure, low cost, reliable operation and effective vibration suppression. This paper offers a comprehensive review of the development, modeling, analysis, and design of the Stockbridge-type dampers and their applications in Aeolian vibration control of power transmission lines. A Stock bridge-type damper is a dumbbell-shaped device that consists of a short messenger cable with two masses at the ends and a clamp at the middle to attach to a conductor. The friction among the strands in the messenger cable dissipations energy. A Stock bridge-type damper is essentially a tuned mass damper. For the modeling of a Stockbridge damper alone, the classis linear mechanics analysis, the nonlinear analysis, and finite element method (FEM) are reviewed. For the modeling of the combined damper and conductor system, this paper mainly reviews the Energy Balance Principle (EBP) that is relatively easy to use and can obtain the energy dissipated by the damper. Two important design issues, the damper parameter sensitivity analysis and damper location optimization, are discussed in this paper. This paper also briefly reviews the experimentation and fatigue related to a Stockbridge damper. In addition, this paper provides an outlook of future development, analysis, and application of Stockbridge-type dampers for conductor vibration control.