| Due to the increase in voice and data communication and the advent of digital television, there is a need to reinforce the solid round steel leg and bracing members of existing guyed lattice communication towers to carry additional antenna loads. Reinforcement is generally in the form of rods or angles connected to the leg and bracing members either by U-bolts only or by means of U-bolts and end welding. The sizes of reinforcing members were in accordance with industry practice. Finite element models were built to compute the compressive strength of such members using modified static Riks method.;From experimental results, it was concluded that (i) the failure of one leg member has no effect on the strength of the remaining leg members, (ii) end welding provides additional reserve strength to the leg members, (iii) compressive pre-loading has no effect on the strength, (iv) the number of U-bolts has an effect on the strength, but the location of bolts is more important than the number, and (v) increased bolt torque results in an increase in the strength. It was also found that angle reinforcement is more effective than the rod reinforcement. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
