TOWER ACCESSORIES
Structural steel:
The tower members including cross arms shall be of structural steel conforming to any of the grade, as
appropriate, of IS 2062: 1992. Steel conforming to any of the appropriate grade of IS 8500: 12 may also
be used. Medium and high strength structural steels with known properties conforming to other
national and international standards may also be used subject to approval for utilizing the proper
material
Conductor tension
The conductor tension at everyday temperature and without external load should not exceed the
following percentage of the ultimate strength of the conductor as shown in table 2:
Initial unloaded tension 35 percent
Final unloaded tension 25 percent
Provided that the ultimate tension under everyday temperature and full wind or minimum temperature
and two-thirds wind pressure does not exceed 70 percent of the ultimate tensile strength of the cable.
Earth Wire:
This specification provides for design, manufacture, testing, inspection, packing and dispatch, to
destination of Steel Cored Earth wire, of sizes 7/3.66 (7 strands of 3.66mm wires each) & 7/3.15. The
Earth wire shall be hot dip galvanized. The Earth wire is to be used as Earth wire on single circuit and / or
double-circuit transmission lines of various ratings and / or sub-stations of the purchaser for protection
of steel structures, equipment, etc. or the substations from lightning strokes, various types of faults, etc.
Insulator Disc:
Insulator discs are manufactured bought out items procured from experienced manufacturers. The
insulator material is usually porcelain and for anti-fog insulators, the material is of glass. The surface is
very smooth and has a typical disc type curvature with rings to provide necessary creep age length.
i) Under ultimate design wind loading conditions, the load on insulator string shall not exceed
70% of its selected rating.
ii) ii) Under everyday temperature and no wind conditions, the load on insulator string shall
not exceed 25% of its selected rating.
iii) iii) The insulators shall consist of Anti Fog Disc Insulators or long Rod Insulators having
Electro-Mechanical strength of 120 KN for Suspension Strings & 160 KN for Tension Springs
and minimum creep-age of 31mm/kV.
Bolts:
Bolts for tower connections shall conform to IS 12427 : 1988 or of property class 4.6 conforming to
IS 6639 : 1972, High strength bolts, if used shall conform to IS 5624 : 1970. Step bolts shall conform
to IS 10238: 1982.
Nuts:
Nuts shall confirm to IS 1363 (part 3): 1992. The mechanical properties shall conform to property
class 4 or 5 as the case may be as specified in IS 1367 (part 6) : 1980 except that the proof stress for
nuts of property class 5 shall be as given in IS 6623 : 1985.
Washers:
Washers shall conform to IS 2016: 1967. Heavy washers shall conform to IS 6610: 1972. Spring
washers shall conform to type B of IS 3063: 1972. Washers to be used with high strength bolts and
nuts shall conform to IS 6649: 1985.
Galvanization:
Structural members of the towers, plain and heavy washers shall be Galvanized in accordance with
the provisions of IS 4759: 1984. Threaded fasteners shall be galvanized to conform to the
requirements of IS 1367 (part 8 13): 1983. Spring washers shall be hot dip galvanized as per service
grade 4 of IS 4759:1984 or electro galvanized as per service grade 3 of IS 1573: 1986 as specified
BRACING SYSTEMS
The following bracing systems are usually adopted for transmission line towers.
TOWER DESIGN
3.1 Reliability considerations:
Transmission lines shall be designed for the reliability levels given in table below. These levels are
expressed in terms of return period in years of climatic (wind) loads. The minimum, yearly reliability
ps, corresponding to the return period t is expressed as ps = (1-1/2T)
Table 3.Reliability levels of transmission lines
SL.NO Description Reliability levels 1 2 3
1. Return period of design loads, in years, T 50 150 500
2. Yearly reliability, Ps 1-10-2 1-10-8.5 1-10-8
Reliability level 1 shall be adopted for EHV transmission lines up to 400KV class.
Reliability level 2 shall be adopted for EHV transmission lines above 400KV class.
Triple and quadruple circuit tower up to 400 KV lines shall be designed corresponding to the
reliability level 2. Reliability level 3 shall be adopted for Tall River crossing towers and special
towers, although these towers are not covered in this standard. 12 In this particular project
reliability level 1 is considered as the transmission line adopted is 400KV class. 3.2 Wind effects Basic
wind speed, Vb:
