An improvement to seismic design of substation support structures

Reza Karami Mohammadi, Vahid Akrami and Farzad Nikfarb

Abstract

The acceleration that the electrical equipment experiences on a structure can be several times the ground acceleration. Currently, substation support structures are being designed according to ASCE (Substation Structure Design Guide 2008), without any consideration about effects of these structures on dynamic behavior of mounted equipment. In this paper, a parametric study is implemented in order to improve seismic design of candlestick substation structures based on this design guide. To do this, dynamic amplification factor (DAF) of different candlestick support-equipment combinations is evaluated and compared to the target DAF presented in IEEE STD 693 (2006). Based on this procedure, a new criterion is developed to restrict maximum acceleration at support-equipment intersection.

Key Words

seismic design; dynamic amplification factor; substations; support structures

Address

Reza Karami Mohammadi: Civil Engineering Department, K. N. Toosi University of Technology (KNTU), Tehran, Iran Vahid Akrami: Civil Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Farzad Nikfarb: Civil Engineering Department, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

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