Evaluation of power line cable fatigue parameters based on measurements on a laboratory cable test span

The present paper describes experiments carried out on IREQ laboratory cable test bench. Test span arrangement is a 63.15m cable span with termination ends designed so as to minimize energy dissipation. A shaker provides a vertical alternating force to the conductor. During the experiments, a maximum of information on mode shape is collected: location of nodes, antinode amplitude of vibration, relative displacement at 44.5, 89, and 178mm from the last point of contact with the metallic clamp. Several configurations are studied: span equipped with an homogeneous steel cable, span equipped with an ACSR Crow conductor, sometimes in combination with other equipments such as a vibration damper or a local mass, to investigate how the presence of such devices impacts conductor vibrations. It results from these experiments an interesting comparison of two widely used fatigue indicators, the relative displacement Yb 2 (also called “bending amplitude”) and fymax (the product of antinode amplitude of vibration by frequency). Also, collected data gives indirect information on conductor variable bending stiffness.