Stranded conductors and Bundled conductors

Stranded conductor
What is Stranded conductor?
Instead of a single rounded conductor stranded conductors made from conductors of smaller radii are used. Group of small radii conductors is known as the Stranded Conductor.

Stranded Conductor

Advantages of stranded conductor over single rounded conductor

The stranded conductor has larger surface area so the electric field strength near the conductor surface is reduced. As a result the stranded conductor is less likely to experience corona. Simultaneously it has irregular surface so the corona effect will be more pronounced. It depends upon the factor which is more affecting that has to be taken into consideration.

 The stranded conductor is more flexible than a single rounded conductor of equal capacity. For higher capacity conductor the conductor diameter may become large enough that use of one single conductor of large diameter becomes non-flexible. Stranded conductors have more mechanical strength.

Types of stranded conductors

Three types of conductors are mainly used for transmission purposes: All Aluminum Alloy Conductor (AAAC) Aluminum Conductor Steel Reinforced (ACSR) Aluminum Conductor Alloy Reinforced (ACAR)

Bundled Conductor
What is bundled conductor? In high capacity transmission lines instead of one conductor (ACSR/AAAC conductor) per phase, two, three or four conductors are used. This is called bundled conductor.

Advantages of Bundled Conductors

Bundled conductors per phase reduces the voltage gradient in the vicinity of the line. Thus reduces the possibility of the corona discharge. Improvement in the transmission efficiency as loss due to corona effect is countered. Bundled conductor lines will have higher capacitance to neutral in comparison with single lines. Thus they will have higher charging currents which helps in improving the power factor.

 Bundled conductor lines will have higher capacitance and lower inductance than ordinary lines they will have higher Surge Impedance Loading (Z=(L/C)1/2). Higher Surge Impedance Loading (SIL) will have higher maximum power transfer ability. With increase in self GMD or GMR inductance per phase will be reduced compared to single conductor line. This results in lesser reactance per phase compared to ordinary single line. Hence lesser loss due to reactance drop.

Vibrations and dampers

Aeoline vibrations Galooping or Dancing

Vibration dampers
To reduce the vibrations dampers are used. Widely used dampers are Stock bridge dampers A Stockbridge damper is a tuned mass damper used to suppress wind-induced vibrations .

 The dumbbell-shaped device consists of two masses at the ends of a short length of cable or flexible rod, which is clamped at its middle to the main cable. The damper is designed to dissipate the energy of oscillations in the main cable to an acceptable level.