Reinforcement of Lattice Tower Legs Made of Angle Sections

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to present the results of the buckling resistance analysis of two types of unconventional reinforcement of legs of a telecommunications tower by means of equal-leg angle sections. The key reinforcing elements are round solid bars that are connected with the angle section in various ways. Two types of connection between an existing leg and reinforcing elements were considered: stiff (welded) and frictional (based on friction between round solid bars and sheet plates around them). The reinforced element was loaded by a surface force applied at the upper end of the angle section. The paper discusses the impact of how the reinforced and reinforcing elements were connected on the value of the critical force. For the frictional connection, it was also shown how environmental conditions (wet or dry) and the resulting friction coefficient influence the form of buckling and the failure mechanism. Calculations were made with FEM numerical analysis using the FEMAP software.